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A BOY'S NAEEATIVE OF THE ADVENTUEES OF A 
SETTLEE'S FAMILY IN CANADA. 



EDITED BY 

JOHN C. GEIKIE. 



Wtt\ !lta8traitmt8* 



LONDON: 
EOUTLEDGE, WAENE, AND EOUTLEDGE, 

FABRINGDON STREET. 

NEW YORK : 56, WALKER STREET. 

1864 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Boy- dreams about travelling — Our family determines to go to 
Canada — The first day on board — Cure for sea-sickness — 
Our passengers — Henry's adventure — We encounter a 
storm — Height of the waves — The bottom of the ocean — 
A fossil ship — The fishing-grounds — See whales and ice- 
bergs — Porpoises — Sea-birds — Lights in the sea, — The great 
Gulf of St. Lawrence — Thick ice-fogs — See land at last — 
Sailing up the river — Land at Quebec . . . pp. 1 — 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Quebec — Wolfe — Montcalm's skull — Toronto — We set off 
for the bush — Mud-roads — A rough ride — Our log-house — 
How it was built — Our barn — We get oxen and cows — 
Elephant and Buckeye — Unpacking our stores — What some 
of our neighbours brought when they came — Hot days — 
Bush costumes — Sun-strokes — My sisters have to turn 
salamanders — Our part of the house-work . . pp.18 — 40 

CHAPTER III. 

Clearing the land — David's bragging, and the end of it — 
Burning the log-heaps — Our logging bee — What prejudice 
can do — Our fences and crops nearly burned — The woods 
on fire — Building a snake- fence — " Shingle" pigs give us 
sore trouble — " Breachy" horses and cattle . pp. 41 — 57 



iv Contents. 

CHAPTER IV. 

We begin our preparations for sowing — Gadflies — Mosquitoes 
— Harrowing experiences — A huge fly — Sandflies — The 
poison of insects and serpents — Winter wheat — The 
wonders of plant-life — Our first " sport" — Woodpeckers — 
"Chitmunks"— The blue jay— The blue bird— The flight 
of birds pp. 58 — 74 

CHAPTER Y. 

Some family changes — Amusements — Cow-hunting — Our 
u side- line" — The bush — Adventures with rattlesnakes — 
Garter-snakes — A frog's flight for life — Black squirrels 

pp. 75—89 

CHAPTER YL 

Spearing fish — Ancient British canoes — Indian ones — A 
bargain with an Indian — Henry's cold bath — Canadian 
thunderstorms — Poor Yorick's death — Our glorious au- 
tumns — The change of the leaf — Sunsets — Indian summer 
— The fall rains and the roads — The first snow — Canadian 
cold — A winter landscape — ' ' Ice-storms" — Snow crystals 
— The minute perfection of God's works — Deer- shooting — ■ 
David's misfortune — Useless cruelty — Shedding of the 
stag's horns pp. 90 — 127 



CHAPTER YIL 

Wolves — My adventure with a bear — Courtenay's cow and 
the wolves — A fright in the woods by night — The river 
freezes — Our winter fires — Cold, cold, cold ! — A winter's 
journey — Sleighing — Winter mufflings — Accidents through 
intense cold pp. 128 — 142 



Contents. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The aurora borealis — " Jumpers" — Squaring timber — Rafts 
— Camping out — A public meeting — Winter fashions — My 
toe frozen — A long winter's walk — Hospitality — Nearly 
lost in the woods pp. 143 — 158 



CHAPTER IX. 

Involuntary racing — A backwoods parsonage — Graves in the 
wilderness — Notions of equality — Arctic winters — Ruffed 
grouse — Indian fishing in winter — A marriage — Our 
winter's pork pp. 159 — 17 



CHAPTER X. 

Our neighbours — Insect plagues — Military officers' families in 

the bush — An awkward mistake — Dr. D nearly shot 

for a bear — Major M — Our candles — Fortunate 

escape from a fatal accident pp. 171 — 181 



CHAPTER XI. 

"Now Spring returns" — Sugar-making — Bush psalmody — 
Bush preaching — Worship under difficulties — A clerical 
Mrs. Partington — Biology — A ghost — "It slips good" — 
Squatters pp. 182—196 



CHAPTER XII. 

Bush magistrates — Indian forest guides — Senses quickened 
by necessity — Breaking up of the ice — Depth of the 
frost — A grave in winter — A ball — A holiday coat 

pp. 197—207 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Wild leeks — Spring birds — Wilson's poem on the blue bird 
— Downy woodpeckers — Passenger pigeons — Their num- 
bers — Boosting places — The frogs — Bull frogs — Tree 
frogs — Flying squirrels ........ pp. 208 — 220 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Our spring crops — Indian corn — Pumpkins — Melons — Fruits 
—Wild Flowers pp. 221—227 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Indians — Wigwams — Dress — Can the Indians be 
civilized ? — Their past decay as a race — Alleged innocence 
of savage life — Narrative of Father Jogues, the Jesuit 
missionary pp. 228 — 260 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The medicine-man — Painted faces — Medals — An embassy — 
Religious notions — Feast of the dead — Christian Indians — 
Visit to the Indians on Lake Huron — Stolidity of the 
Indians — Henry exorcises an Indian rifle . pp. 261 — 279 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The humming-bird — Story of a pet — Canada a good country 
for poor men — A bush story of misfortune — Statute 
labour — Tortoises — The hay season — Our waggon -driving 
— Henry and I are nearly drowned — Henry falls ill — Back- 
wood doctors pp. 280 — 298 



Contents. vii 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

American men and women — Fireflies — Profusion of insect 
life — Grasshoppers — Frederick and David leave Canada — 
Soap-making — Home-made candles — Recipe for washing 
quickly — Writing letters — The parson for driver 

pp. 299—313 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Americanisms — Our poultry — The wasps — Their nests — 
" Bob's" skill in killing them — Racoons — A hunt — Racoon 
cake — The town of Busaco — Summer "sailing" — Boy 
drowned — French settlers pp. 314 — 327 



CHAPTER XX. 

Apple-bees — Orchards — Gorgeous display of apple-blossom — 
A meeting in the woods — The ague — Wild parsnips — Man 
lost in the woods pp. 328 — 340 



CHAPTER XXI. 

A tornado — Bats — Deserted lots — American inquisitiveness 
— An election agent pp. 341 — 349 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A journey to Niagara — River St. Clair — Detroit — A slave's 
escape — An American steamer — Description of the Falls 
of Niagara — Fearful catastrophe . . • . pp. 350 — 366 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The suspension-bridge at Niagara — The whirlpool — The 
battle of Lundy's Lane — Brock's monument — A soldier 
nearly drowned pp. 367 — 374 



viii Contents. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

The Canadian lakes — The exile's love of home — The coloured 
people in Canada — Rice — The Maid of the Mist — Home- 
spun cloth — A narrow road — A grumbler — New England 
emigrants — A potato- pit — The winter's wood 

pp. 375—390 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Thoughts for the future — Changes — Too-hard study — Educa- 
tion in Canada — Christmas markets — Winter amusements 
— Ice-boats — Very cold ice — Oil-springs — Changes on the 
farm — Growth of Canada — The American climate — Old 
England again 391—408 



ERRATUM. 

On page 8, twelfth and thirteenth lines, for " twenty- five, 
or, at most, thirty," read, "thirty-five, or, at most, forty," 
feet, as the height of Atlantic storm-waves. 



LIFE IN THE WOODS. 



CHAPTER L 



Boy- dreams about travelling — Our family determines to go to 
Canada — The first day on board — Cure for sea-sickness — 
Our passengers — Henry's adventure — We encounter a 
storm — Height of the waves — The bottom of the ocean — 
A fossil ship — The fishing- grounds — See whales and ice- 
bergs — Porpoises — Sea-birds — Lights in the sea — The great 
Gulf of St. Lawrence — Thick ice- fogs — See land at last — 
Sailing up the river — Land at Quebec. 

I wonder if ever there were a boy who did not wish 
to travel ? I know I did, and used to spend many 
an hour thinking of all the wonderful things I should 
see, and of what I would bring home when I returned. 
Books of travel I devoured greedily — and very good 
reading for boys, as well as for grown men, I have 
always thought them. I began with " Eobinson 
Crusoe," like most boys — for who has not read his 
story ? Burckhardt, the traveller, found a young 
Arab reading a translation of it in the door of his 
father's tent in the desert. But I don't think I ever 
wished to be like him, or to roam in a wild ro- 
mantic way, or "go to sea," as it is called, like many 
B 



2 Boy-dreams about Travelling. 

other boys I have known, which is a very different 
thing from having harmless fancies, that one would 
like to see strange races of men and strange countries. 
Some of my schoolmates, whom nothing would con- 
tent but being sailors, early cured me of any thought 
of being one, if ever I had it, by what I knew of 
their story when they came back. One of them, 
James Eoper, I did not see for some years after he 
went off, but when I met him at last among the 
ships, he was so worn and broken down I hardly 
knew him again, and he had got so many of the low 
forecastle ways about him, that I could not bear his 
company. Another, Eobert Simpson, went one 
voyage to Trebizond, but that cured him. He came 
back perfectly contented to stay at home, as he had 
found the romance of sailoring, which had lured him 
away, a very different thing from the reality. He 
had never counted on being turned out of his bed 
every other night or so for something or other, as he 
was, or being clouted with a wet swab by some sulky 
fellow, or having to fetch and carry for the men, and 
do their bidding, or to climb wet rigging in stormy 
weather, and get drenched every now and then, with- 
out any chance of changing his clothes ; not to speak 
of the difference between his nice room at home and 
the close, crowded, ' low-roofed forecastle, where he 
could hardly see for tobacco-smoke, and where he 
had to eat and sleep with companions whom he would 
not have thought of speaking to before he sailed. He 



The First Bay on Board. 3 

came back quite sobered down, and, after a time, 
went to study law, and is now a barrister in good 
practice. 

Yet I was very glad when I learned that we were 
going to America. The great woods, and the sport 
I would have with the deer and bears in them, and 
the Indians, of whom I had read so often, and the 
curious wildness there was in the thought of settling 
where there were so few people, and living so differ- 
ently from anything I had known at home, quite 
captivated me. I was glad when the day of sailing 
came, and went on board our ship, the Ocean King, 
with as much delight as if I had been going on a 
holiday trip. There were eight of us altogether — 
five brothers and three sisters (my father and mother 
were both dead), and I had already one brother in 
America, while another stayed behind to push his 
way in England. The anchor once heaved, we were 
soon on our way down the Mersey, and the night fell 
on us while we were still exploring the wonders of 
the ship, and taking an occasional peep over the side 
at the shore. When we had got into the channel, 
the wind having come round to the south-east, the 
captain resolved to go by the northern route, passing 
the upper end of Ireland. All we saw of it, however, 
was very little ; indeed, most of us did not see it at 
all, for the first swell of the sea had sent a good many 
to their berths, in all stages of sickness. One old 
gentleman, a Scotchman, who had been boasting that 
b 2 



4 Cure for Sea- sickness. 

he had a preventive that would keep him clear of it, 
made us all laugh by his groans and wretchedness ; 
for his specific had not only failed, but had set him 
off amongst the first. He had been told that if he 
took enough gingerbread and whisky, he might face 
any sea, and he had followed the advice faithfully; 
but as the whisky itself was fit to make him sick, 
even on shore, you may judge how much it and the 
gingerbread together helped him when the ship was 
heaving and rolling under his feet. We boys did not 
fail, of course, when we heard him lamenting that either 
the one or the other had crossed his lips, to come over 
their names pretty often in his hearing, and advise 
each other to try some, every mention of the words 
bringing out an additional shudder of disgust from 
the unfortunate sufferer. My eldest sister had sent 
me, just before coming on board, for some laudanum 
and mustard, which she was to mix and apply some 
way that was sure, she said, to keep her well ; but 
she got sick so instantly on the ship beginning to 
move that she forgot them, and we had the mustard 
afterwards at dinner in America, and the laudanum 
was a long time in the house for medicine. For 
a few days everything was unpleasant enough, but 
gradually all got right again, and even the ladies 
ventured to reappear on deck. 

Of course, among a number of people gathered in 
a ship, you were sure to meet strange characters. A 
little light man in a wig was soon the butt of the cabin, 



Our Passengers. 5 

lie would ask such silly questions, and say such out- 
rageous things. He was taking cheeses, and tea, and 
I don't know what else, to America with him, for 
fear he would get nothing to eat there ; and he was 
dreadfully alarmed by one of the passengers, who had 
been over before, telling him he would find cockroach 
pie the chief dainty in Canada. I believe the cheeses 
he had with him had come from America at first. 
He thought the best thing to make money by in 
Canada was to sow all the country with mustard- 
seed, it yielded such a great crop, he said ; and he 
seemed astonished at all the table laughing at the 
thought of what could possibly be done with it. 
There was another person in the cabin — a stiff, con- 
ceited man, with a very strange head, the whole face 
and brow running back from the chin, and great 
standing-out ears. He was a distant relation of some 
admiral, I believe ; but if he had been the admiral 
himself, he could not have carried his head higher 
than he did. Nobody was good enough for him. It 
seemed a condescension in him to talk with any one. 
But he soon lost all his greatness, notwithstanding 
his airs, by his asking one day, when we were speak- 
ing about Italy, " What river it was that ran north 
and south along the coast?" in that country. We 
were speaking of a road, and he thought it was about 
a river. Then he asked, the same day, where the 
Danube was, and if it were a large river ; and when 
some one spoke about Sicily, and said that it had 



6 Henry's Adventure. 

been held by the Carthaginians, he wished to know 
if these people held it now. Boy as I was, I conld 
not help seeing what a dreadful thing it was to 
be so ignorant ; and I determined that I would 

never be like Mr. (I sha'n't tell his name), 

at any rate, but would learn as much as ever I 
could. 

I daresay we were troublesome enough to the 
captain sometimes, but, if so, he took his revenge 
on one of us after a time. One day we were play- 
ing with a rope and pulley which was hooked high 
up in the rigging. There was a large loop at the 
one end, and the other, after passing through the 
block, hung down on the deck. Henry had just put 
this loop over his shoulders and fitted it nicely below 
his arms, when the captain chanced to see him, and, 
in an instant, before he knew what he was going to 
do, he had hauled him up ever so high, with all the 
passengers looking at him and laughing at the ridi- 
culous figure he cut. It was some time before he 
would let him down, and as he was a pretty big lad, 
and thought himself almost a man, he felt terribly 
affronted. But he had nothing for it when he got 
down but to hide in his berth till his pride got 
cooled and till the laugh stopped. We were all 
careful enough to keep out of Captain Morrison's, 
way after that. 

One way or other the days passed very pleasantly 
to us boys, whatever they were to older people. It 



We encounter a Storm. 7 

was beautiful when the weather was fine and the 
wind right, to see how we glided through the green 
galleries of the sea, which rose, crested with white, 
at each side. One day and night we had, what we 
thought, a great storm. The sails were nearly all 
struck, and I heard the mate say that the two that 
were left did more harm than good, because they 
only drove the ship deeper into the water. When 
it grew nearly dark, I crept up the cabin-stairs to 
look along the deck at the waves ahead. I could see 
them rising like great black mountains seamed with 
snow, and coming with an awful motion towards us, 
making the ship climb a huge hill, as it were, the 
one moment, and go down so steeply the next, that 
you could not help being afraid that it was sinking 
bodily into the depths of the sea. The wind, mean- 
while, roared through the ropes and yards, and every 
little while there was a hollow thump of some wave 
against the bows, followed by the rush of water over 
the bulwarks. I had read the account of the storm 
in Yirgil, and am sure he must have seen something 
like what I saw that night to have written it. There 
is an ode in Horace to him when he was on the 
point of setting out on a voyage. Perhaps he saw 
it then. The description in the Bible is, however, 
the grandest picture of a storm at sea: " The Lord 
commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which 
lifteth up the waves of the deep. They mount up 
to heaven, they go down again to the depths: their 



8 Height of the Waves. 

soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and 
fro and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their 
wit's end." " The Lord hath His way in the whirl- 
wind and in the storm, and the clouds are the 
dust of His feet." Yet I have found since, that 
though the waves appear so very high, they are 
much lower than we suppose, our notions of them 
being taken from looking up at them from the hol- 
low between two. Dr. Scoresby, a great authority, 
measured those of the Atlantic in different weathers, 
and found that they seldom rise above fifteen feet, a 
great storm only causing them to rise to twenty-five, 
or, at most, thirty, which is very different from 
" running mountains high," as we often hear said. 
I could not help pitying the men who had to go 
up to the yards and rigging in the terrible wind 
and rain, with the ship heaving and rolling so dread- 
fully, and work with the icy cold sheets and ropes. 
Poor fellows ! it seems a wonder how they ever can 
hold on. Indeed, they too often lose their hold, and 
then there is no hope for them ; down they go, 
splash into the wild sea, with such a scream of agony 
as no one can ever forget after having heard it. My 
brother, on crossing some years after, saw a man 
thus lost — a fine, healthy Orkneyman, whom some 
sudden lurch of the ship threw from the outside ot 
the yard. Though it was broad daylight, and though 
they would have done anything to help him as . they 
saw him rising on the wave, farther and farther 



The Bottom of the Ocean 9 

behind them, swimming bravely, they were perfectly 
unable even to make an effort, the sea rolling so 
wildly, and the ship tearing on through the waves 
so swiftly. So they had, with hearts like to break, 
to let him drown before their very eyes. 

As we got further over we heard a great deal 
about the Banks of Newfoundland, and, natu- 
rally enough, thought the shores of that island 
were what was meant; but we found, when we 
reached them, that it was only the name given to the 
shallower part of the sea to the south of the coast. 
The soundings for the electric telegraph have since 
shown that from Ireland on the one side, and New- 
foundland on the other, a level table-land forms the 
floor of the ocean, at no great depth, for some 
hundreds of miles, the space between sinking sud- 
denly on both sides into unfathomable abysses. 
What the depth of the Atlantic is at the deepest is 
not known, but I remember seeing a notice of a 
surveying ship, which had been able to sink a line in 
the southern section of it to the wonderful depth of 
seven miles, finding the bottom only with that great 
length of rope. The banks are, no doubt, formed in 
part from the material carried by the great ocean 
current which flows up from the Gulf of Mexico, 
washing the shores all the way ; and then, passing 
Newfoundland, reaches across even to the most 
northern parts of Europe and the Arctic circle. Ii 
the quantity of mud, and gravel, and sand deposited 



10 A Fossil Ship. 

on the Banks be great enough to bury some of the 
many wrecks of all sizes which go to the bottom 
there, what a wonderful sight some future ages may 
have ! The floor of the ocean has often, elsewhere, 
been gradually or suddenly raised into dry land ; and 
if the Banks should be so, and the wrecks be buried 
in them before they had rotted away, geologists of 
those days will perhaps be laying bare in some 
quarry, now far down in the sea, the outline of a 
fossil ship, with all the things it had in it when it 
was lost ! 

We met a great many fishing-boats in this part, 
some from Newfoundland, some from Nova Scotia, 
others, again, from the northern coasts of the United 
States, with not a few all the way from France. 
We were becalmed one day close to some from the 
State of Maine, and one of them very soon sent off a 
boat to us with some as fine looking men in it as you 
could well see, to barter fish with the captain for 
some pork. For a piece or two of the sailor's mess- 
pork, which I thought dreadful-looking, it was so 
yellow and fat, they threw on board quite a number 
of cod-fish and some haddocks, giving us, I thought, 
by far the best of the exchange. I am told that a 
great many of these fishing- vessels are lost every 
year by storms, and occasionally some are run down 
and sunk in a moment by a ship passing over 
them. They are so rash as to neglect hanging 
out lights in many cases, and the weather is, more- 



The Fishing -grounds. 11 

over, often so very foggy, that, even when they do, it 
is impossible to see them. The ships, if going at all 
fast, sound fog-horns every now and then on such 
days — that is, they should do it — but I fear they 
sometimes forget. There is far less humanity in 
some people than one would like to see, even the 
chance of causing death itself seeming to give them 
no concern. I remember once going in a steamer up 
the Bay of Fundy, over part of the same ground, 
when we struck a fishing-schooner in the dead of the 
night ; but the captain only swore at it for being in 
his way, and never stopped to see if it were much 
injured or not, though, for anything he or any one 
knew, it might be in a sinking state. Whether it 
be thoughtlessness or passion at the time, or stony 
hardheartedness, it is an awful thing to be unkind. 
Uncle Toby, who put the fly out of the window 
rather than kill it, makes us love him for his ten- 
derness even in an instance so slight. 

One day we saw two whales at a short distance from 
the ship, but their huge black backs, and the spout 
of water they made from their breathing-holes when 
they were taking a fresh breath, was all we saw of 
them. Some of the youngsters, however, made some 
sport out of the sight by telling a poor simple woman, 
who had got into the cabin, how they had read of a 
ship that once struck on a great black island in the 
middle of the sea and went down, and how the 
sailors got off on the rock, and landed their pro- 



] 2 See Whales and Icebergs. 

visions, and were making themselves comfortable, 
when one of them unfortunately thought he would 
kindle a fire to cook something ; but had hardly done 
it before they discovered that they had got on the 
back of a sleeping whale, which no sooner felt the 
heat burning it than it plunged down into the waves 
with all on it! It is a part of one of the boy's 
stories we have all read, but the poor creature 
believed it, listening to them with her eyes fixed on 
their faces, and expressing her pity for the sailors 
who had made the mistake. 

We had two or three icebergs in sight when near 
Newfoundland, and very beautiful they were. Only 
think of great mountains of ice shining in the sun 
with every colour that light can give, and cascades 
of snowy-white water leaping down their sides into 
the sea. Those we saw were perhaps from eighty to 
a hundred feet high, but they are sometimes even 
two hundred; and as there are eight feet of ice 
below the water for every one above, this would 
make a two hunded feet iceberg more than the third 
of a mile from the bottom to the top. They are 
formed on the shores of the icy seas in the north, by 
the alternate melting and freezing of the edge o± 
those ice-rivers which we call glaciers, which get 
thrust out from the land till they are undermined by 
the sea, and cracked by summer thaws, and then 
tumble into the waters, to find their way wherever 
the currents may carry them. Dr. Kane and Captain 



Icebergs. 13 

M'Clintock both saw them in the different stages ot 
their growth ; and I don't know a more interesting 
narrative than that of the ascent to the top of the 
great frozen stream, on the shore of Washington's 
Land, by the former, and his looking away to the 
north, east, and south, over the vast, broken, many- 
coloured continent of ice, which stretches in awful 
depth and unbroken continuity over Greenland. The 
icebergs often carry off from the shore a vast quan- 
tity of stones and gravel, which gets frozen into 
them. Dr. Scoresby says he has seen one of them 
carrying, he should think, from fifty to a hundred 
thousand tons of rock on it. It has, no doubt, been 
in this way that most of the great blocks and boulders 
of stone, different from any in their neighbourhood, 
which lie scattered over many parts of the world, 
have been taken to their present places.* 

I must not forget the porpoises — great pig-like 
fish, which once or twice mocked us by racing 
alongside, darting a-head every now and then like 
arrows, as if to show us how slow we were in com- 
parison — nor the birds, which never left us the 
whole way, and must sleep on the water when they 
do sleep — nor the beautiful lights which shone in 
the sea at night. We used to sit at the stern look- 

* What is known as the "boulder clay," however, seems 
rather to be the moraine of ancient glaciers — that is, the 
wreck of broken rocks torn away by them in their passage 
through the valleys, and now left bare by their having 
melted away. 



M Porpoises and Sea-hirds. 

ing at them for long together. The ridges of the 
waves would sometimes seem all on fire, and streaks 
and spots of light would follow the ship with every 
moment's progress. Sometimes, as the water rushed 
round the stern and up from beneath, they would 
glitter like a shower of stars or diamonds, joining 
presently in a sheet of flame. Now they would look 
like balls of glowing metal; then, presently, they 
would pass like ribbons of light. There was no end 
to the combinations or changes of beauty; the very 
water joined to heighten them by its ceaseless min- 
gling of colours, from the whitest foam, through 
every shade of green, to the dark mass of the 
ocean around. These appearances come from the 
presence of myriads of creatures of all sizes, chiefly 
the different kinds of Sea-nettles,* some of which 
are so small as to need a microscope to show 
their parts, while others form large masses, and 
shine like the suns of these watery constellations. 
They are luminous by a phosphoric light they are 
able to secrete; their brilliancy being thus of the 
same kind as that which smokes and burns in the 
dark from the skin of fish, and makes the lights in so 
many different insects. The phosphorus used in 
manufactures is obtained from burned bones. I 
have often seen a similar light in the back woods on 
the old half-rotten stumps of trees which had been 

* The jelly-fish, or medusa, which we so often see on our 
beaches, is a familiar example of the class. 



Liglits in the Sea. 1 5 

cut down. The glow-worm of England and the 
fire-fly of Canada are familiar examples of the same 
wonderful power of self-illumination. Indeed, few 
countries are without some species of insect possess- 
ing this characteristic. One can't help thinking how 
universal life is when they see it as it is shown in 
these sights at sea — millions on millions of shining 
creatures in the path of a single ship ; and the happi- 
ness which life gives us in our youth makes us 
admire the kindness of God, who, by making every- 
thing so full of it, has crowded the air, and earth, 
and waters with so much enjoyment. 

Our sabbaths on board were not quite like those 
at honie ; but, as we had a clergyman with us, who 
was going with his family to a chaplaincy in the Far 
West, we had prayers and sermons in the forenoon, 
when the weather permitted. But a good many of the 
passengers were not very respectful to the day, and 
some, who, I dare say, were very orderly on Sundays 
at home, seemed to act as if to be on a voyage made 
every day a week-day. 

We were now in the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
which was called so because Cabot, who discovered 
it, chanced to do so on the day set apart to that 
saint. But we were some time in it before we saw 
land, and there was more care taken about the posi- 
tion of the ship than ever before, for fear we should, 
like so many vessels, fall foul of the island of Anti- 
costi, or run on shore in a fog. We had had thick 



16 Thick Ice-fogs. 

weather occasionally from our approaching New- 
foundland, and it still prevailed now and then till we 
got near Quebec. The icebergs coming down from 
the north, and the different temperature of the air 
coming over them and over the great frozen regions, 
cause these thick mists by condensing the evapora- 
tion from the warmer sea and preventing its rising 
into the air. We could sometimes hardly see the 
length of the bowsprit before us, and as the sun 
would be shut out for days together, so that we 
could not find out our position, it made every one 
anxious and half afraid. Many ships are lost by 
being muffled in these thick clouds. They drive, 
at full speed, against icebergs or on sunken rocks, 
or ashore on the wild coast, when they think 
themselves safe in an open clear sea. I often won- 
dered when crossing again, some years after, in a 
great steamer, how we ever escaped. On we would 
go in it, with the fog-bell ringing and horns blowing, 
to be sure, but in perfect blind ignorance of what 
lay a few yards ahead. Other ships, icebergs, rocks, 
or the iron shore, might be close at hand, yet on, on, 
up and down went the great shafts, and beat, beat, 
went the huge paddle-wheels — the ship trembling all 
over, as if even it were half uneasy. It is a wonder, 
not that so many, but that so few, ships should be 
lost, covering the sea as they do at all seasons, like 
great flocks of seafowl. 

After a time the land became visible at last, first 



Sailing up the River. 17 

on one side and then on the other, and the pilot was 
taken on board — a curious looking man to most of 
us, in his extraordinary mufflings, and with his 
broken French-English. As we sailed up the river 
the views on the banks became very pleasing. The 
white houses, with their high roofs, like those we see 
in pictures of French chateaux, and the churches 
roofed with tin, and as white underneath as the 
others, and the line of fields of every shade, from the 
brown earth to the dark green wheat, and the curious 
zigzag wooden fences, and the solemn woods, every here 
and there coming out at the back of the picture, like 
great grim sentinels of the land, made it impossible 
to stay away from the deck. Then there were the 
grand sunsets, with the water like glass, and the 
shores reflected in them far down into their depths, 
and the curtains of gold and crimson in the west, 
where the sun sank out of sight, and the light 
changing into crimson, and violet, and green, by 
turns, as the twilight faded into night. 



18 



CHAPTER II. 

Quebec — Wolfe — Montcalm's skull — Toronto — We set oft 
for the bush — Mud-roads — A rough ride — Our log-house — 
How it was built — Our barn — We get oxen and cows — 
Elephant and Buckeye — Unpacking our stores — What some 
of our neighbours brought when they came — Hot days — 
Bush costumes — Sun-strokes — My sisters have to turn 
salamanders — Our part of the house-work. 

Our landing at Quebec was only for a very short 
time, till some freight was delivered, our vessel having 
to go up to Montreal before we left it. But we had 
stay enough to let us climb the narrow streets of this, 
the oldest of Canadian cities, and to see some of its 
sights. The view from different points was unspeak- 
ably grand to us after being so long pent up in a 
ship. Indeed, in itself, it is very fine. Cape Dia- 
mond and the fortifications hanging high in the air 
— the great basin below, like a sheet of the purest 
silver, where a hundred sail of the line might ride in 
safety — the village spires and the fields of every 
shape, dotted with countless white cottages, the silver 
thread of the Eiver St. Charles winding hither and 
thither among them, and, in the distance, shutting in 



Montcalm's Skull. 19 

this varied loveliness, a range of lofty mountains, 
purple and blue by turns, standing out against the 
sky in every form of picturesque beauty, made alto- 
gether a glorious panorama. 

Of course, the great sight of sights to a Briton is 
the field of battle on the Plains of Abraham, where 
Wolfe, on the 13th September, 1759, won for us, at 
the price of his own life, the magnificent colonies of 
what is now British North America. Wolfe's body 
was taken to England for burial, and now lies in the 
vault below the parish church at Greenwich. That 
of Montcalm, the French general, who, also, was 
killed in the battle, was buried in the Ursuline Con- 
vent, where they showed us a ghastly relic of him — 
his fleshless, eyeless skull, kept now in a little glass 
case, as if it were a thing fit to be exhibited. It 
was to me a horrible sight to look at the grinning 
death's head, and think that it was once the seat of 
the gallant spirit who died so nobly at his post. 
His virtues, which all honour, are his fitting memorial 
in every mind, and his appropriate monument is the 
tomb erected by his victorious enemies — not this 
parading him in the dishonour and humiliation of the 
grave. It is the spirit of which we speak when we 
talk of a hero, and there is nothing in common with 
it and the poor mouldering skull that once con- 
tained it. 

Quebec is, as I have said, a beautiful place in sum - 
c 2 



20 Toronto. 

mer, but it must be bad enough in winter. The 
snow lies till well on in May, and it is so deep that, 
in the country, everything but houses and trees and 
other high objects are covered. The whole landscape 
is one unbroken sheet of white, over which you may 
go in any direction without meeting or seeing the 
smallest obstacle. But people get used to anything ; 
and even the terrible cold is so met and resisted by 
double window-sashes, and fur caps, and gloves, and 
coats, that the inhabitants seem actually to enjoy it. 

When we got to Toronto, we found that my brother 
Eobert, who was already in the country, had been 
travelling in different directions to look out a place 
for us, and had at length bought a farm in the town- 
ship of Bidport, on the banks of the River St. Clair. 
We therefore stayed no longer in Toronto than pos- 
sible, but it took us some time to get everything put 
right after the voyage, and we were further detained 
by a letter from my brother, telling us that the house 
on the farm could not be got ready for us for a week 
or two longer. We had thus plenty of time to look 
about us, and strange enough everything seemed. 
The town is very different now-a-days ; but, then, it 
was a straggling collection of wooden houses of all 
sizes and shapes, a large one next to a miserable one- 
storey shell, placed with its end to the street. There 
were a few brick houses, but only a few. The streets 
were like a newly-ploughed field in rainy weather, 



Mud-roads. 21 

for mud, the waggons often sinking almost to the axles 
in it. There was no gas, and the pavements were 
both few and bad. It has come to be a fine place 
now, but to us it seemed very wretched. While we 
w r ere waiting, we laid in whatever provision we 
thought we would need for a good while, everything 
being much cheaper in Toronto than away in the 
bush. A month or less saw us moving, my sisters 
going with Andrew and Henry by water, while 
Frederic was left behind in an office ; Eobert, my 
Canadian brother, and I, going by land, to get some 
business done up the country as we passed. The 
stage in which we took our places was a huge affair, 
hung on leather springs, with a broad shelf behind, 
supported by straps from the upper corners, for the 
luggage. There were three seats, the middle one 
movable, which it needed to be, as it came exactly 
in the centre of the door. The machine and its load 
w r ere drawn by four horses, rough enough, but of 
good bottom, as they say. The first few miles were 
very pleasant, for they had been macadamized, but 
after that, what travelling ! The roads had not yet 
dried up after the spring rains and thaws, and as they 
were only mud, and much travelled, the most the 
horses could do was to pull us through at a walk. 
When we came to a very deep hole, we had to get out 
till the coach floundered through it. Every here and 
there, where the water had overflowed from the bush 



22 A Rough Ride. 

and washed the road completely away in its passage 
across it, the ground was strewn with rails which had 
been taken from the nearest fences to hoist out some 
wheels that had stuck fast. At some places there 
had been a wholesale robbery of rails, which had 
been thrown into a gap of this kind in the road, till 
it was practicable for travellers or waggons. After 
a time we had to bid adieu to the comforts of a 
coach and betake ourselves to a great open waggon — 
a mere strong box, set on four wheels, with pieces of 
plank laid across the top for seats. In this affair — 
some ten feet long and about four broad — we went 
through some of the worst stages. But, beyond 
Hamilton, we got back our coach again, and for a 
time went on smoothly enough, till we reached a 
swamp, which had to be crossed on a road made of 
trees cut into lengths and laid side by side, their ends 
resting on the trunks of others placed lengthwise. 
You may think how smooth it would be, with each 
log a different size from the one next it — a great pa- 
triarch of the woods rising high between " babes " 
half its thickness. The whole fabric had, moreover, 
sunk pretty nearly to the level of the water, and the 
alder bushes every here and there overhung the 
edges. As we reached it late at night, and there was 
neither moon nor stars, and a yard too much either 
way would have sent coach and all into the water, 
men had to be got from the nearest house to go at 



A Hough Hide. 23 

the horses' heads with lanterns, and the passengers 
were politely requested to get out, and stumble on 
behind as they could, except two ladies, who were 
allowed to stay and be battered up and down inside, 
instead of having to sprawl on in the dark with us. 
This was my first experience of " corduroy roads," 
but we had several more stretches of them before we 
got to our journey's end. I have long ago learned 
all the varieties of badness of which roads are capable, 
and question whether " corduroy" is entitled to the first 
rank. There is a kind made of thick planks, laid side 
by side, which, when they get old and broken, may 
bid fair for the palm. I have seen a stout, elderly 
lady, when the coach was at a good trot, bumped 
fairly against the roof by a sudden hole and the shock 
against the plank at the other side. But, indeed, 
" corduroy" is dreadful. When we came to it I tried 
everything to save my poor bones — sitting on my 
hands, or raising my body on them — but it was of 
little use ; on we went, thump, thump, thumping 
against one log after another, and this, in the last 
part of our journey, with the bare boards of an 
open waggon for seats once more. It was bad 
enough in the coach with stuffed seats, but it was 
awful on the hard wood. But we got through 
without an actual upset or breakdown, which is more 
than a friend of mine could say, for the coach in 
which he was went into so deep a mud-hole at one 



24 Our Log-house. 

part of the road, that it fairly overturned, throwing 
the passengers on the top of one another inside, and 
leaving them no way of exit, when they came to 
themselves, but to crawl out through the window. 
It was fine weather, however, and the leaves were 
making the woods beautiful, and the birds had begun 
to flit about, so that the cheerfulness of nature kept 
us from thinking much of our troubles. It took 
us three days to go a hundred and fifty miles, and 
we stopped on the way besides for my brother's 
business, so that the rest of our party had reached 
our new home, by their route, before us. 

The look of the house which was to be our 
dwelling was novel enough to me, with my old ideas 
about houses still in my head. It was built a little 
back from the river, far enough to give room for a 
garden when we had time to make one; and the 
trees had been cut down from the water's edge to 
some distance behind the house to make things a 
little more cheery, and also to prevent the risk of any 
of them falling on our establishment in a high wind. 
The house itself had, in fact, been built of the logs 
procured by felling these patriarchs of the forest, 
every one of which had, as usual on Canadian farms, 
been cut down. My brother had left special instruc- 
tions to spare some of the smaller ones, but the 
"chopper" had understood him exactly the wrong 
way, and had cut down those pointed out with 



How it was Built. 25 

especial zeal as the objects of liis greatest dislike. 
Building the house must have been very heavy work, 
for it was made of great logs, the whole thickness of 
the trees, piled one on another, a story and a half 
high. The neighbours had made what they call a 
" bee" to help to " raise" it — that is, they had come 
without expecting wages, but with the understanding 
that each would get back from us, when he wanted 
it, as many days' labour as he had given. They 
manage a difficult business like that of getting up 
the outside of a log house, more easily than one would 
think. First, the logs are cut into the proper lengths 
for the sides and the ends ; then they are notched at 
the end to make them keep together ; then an equal 
number are put at the four sides to be ready, and 
the first stage is over. The next step is to get four 
laid in the proper positions on the ground, and then 
to get up the rest, layer by layer, on the top of each 
other, till the whole are in their places. It is a ter- 
rible strain on the men, for there is nothing but 
sheer strength to help them, except that they put 
poles from the top of the last log raised, to the 
ground, and then, with handspokes, force another up 
the slope to its destined position. I have known 
many men terribly wrenched by the handspoke of 
some other one slipping and letting the whole weight 
of one end come upon the person next him. The 
logs at the front and back were all fully twenty feet 



26 Our Log -house. 

long, and some of them eighteen inches thick, so that 
you may judge their weight. After the square frame 
had been thus piled up, windows and a door were 
cut with axes, a board at the sides of each keeping 
the ends of the logs in their places. You may wonder 
how this could be done, but backwoodsmen are so 
skilful with the axe that it was done very neatly. 
The sashes for the windows and the planking for 
different parts of the house were got from a saw-mill 
some distance off, across the river, and my brother put 
in the glass. Of course there were a great many chinks 
between the logs, but these were filled up, as well as 
possible, with billets and chips of wood, the whole 
being finally coated and made air-tight with mortar. 
Thus the logs looked as if built up with lime, the 
great black trunks of the trees alternating with the 
grey belts between. The frame of the roof was made 
of round poles, flattened on the top, on which boards 
were put, and these again were covered with shingles 
— a kind of wooden slate made of split pine, which 
answers very well. The angles at the ends were 
filled up with logs fitted to the length, and fixed in 
their places by wooden pins driven through the roof- 
pole at each corner. On the whole house there were 
no nails used at all, except on the roof. Wooden 
pins, and an auger to make holes, made everything 
fast. Inside, it was an extraordinary place. The floor 
was paved with pine slabs, the outer planks cut from 



How it teas Built. 27 

logs, with the round side down, and fixed by wooden 
pins to sleepers made of thin young trees, cut the 
right lengths. Overhead, a number of similar round 
poles, about the thickness of a man's leg, supported 
the floor of the upper story, which was to be my 
sisters' bedroom. They had planks, however, instead 
of boards, in honour of their sex, perhaps. They had 
to climb to this paradise by an extraordinary ladder, 
made with the never-failing axe and auger, out of 
green, round wood. I used always to think of 
Eobinson Crusoe getting into his fortification when I 
saw them going up. 

The chimney was a wonderful affair. It was large 
enough to let you walk up most of the way, and could 
hold, I can't tell how many logs, four or five feet long, 
for a fire. It was built of mud, and when whitewashed 
looked very well — at least we came to like it ; it was 
so clean and cheerful in the winter time. But we had 
to pull it down some years after, and get one built of 
brick, as it was always getting out of repair. A 
partition was put up across the middle and then 
divided again, and this made two bedrooms for my 
brothers, and left us our solitary room which was 
to serve for kitchen, dining-room, and drawing-room, 
the outer door opening into it. As to paint, it was 
out of the question, but we had lime for whitewash, 
and what with it and some newspapers which my 
brothers pasted up in their bedrooms, and a few pic- 



28 Our Log chouse. 

tures we brought from home, we thought we were 
quite stylish. There was no house any better, at 
any rate, in the neighbourhood, and, I suppose, we 
judged by that. 

To keep out the rain and the cold — for rats were 
not known on the river for some years after — the 
whole of the bottom log outside had to be banked 
up after our arrival, the earth being dug up all 
round and thrown against it. The miserable shan- 
ties in which some settlers manage to live for a time 
are half buried by this process, and the very wretched 
ones built by labourers alongside public works while 
making, look more like natural mounds than human 
habitations. I have often thought it was a curious 
thing to see how people, when in the same, or nearly 
the same, circumstances, fall upon similar plans. 
Some of the Indians in America, for instance, used 
to sink a pit for a house and build it round with 
stones, putting a roof on the walls, which reached 
only a little above the ground; and antiquarians tell 
us that the early Scotch did the very same. Then 
Xenophon, long ago, and Curzon, in our day, tell us 
how they were often like to fall through the roof of 
the houses in Armenia into the middle of the family 
huddled up, with their oxen, beneath, their dwellings 
being burrowed into the side of a slope, and showing 
no signs of their presence from above. But our house 
was not like this, I am happy to say ; it was on the 



Hoiv it was Built. 29 

ground, not in it, and was very warm for Canada, 
when the wind did not come against the door, which 
was a very poor one, of inch-thick wood. The 
thickness of the logs kept out the cold wonderfully, 
though that is a very ambiguous word for a Cana- 
dian house, which would need to be made two logs 
thick to be warm without tremendous fires — at least, 
in the open unsheltered country. The houses made 
of what they call " clap-boards" — that is, of narrow 
boards three-quarters of an inch thick, and lathed 
and plastered inside — are very much colder; indeed, 
they are, in my opinion, awful, in any part of them 
where a fire is not kept up all winter. 

One thing struck me very much, that locks and 
bolts seemed to be thought very useless things. 
Most of the doors had on]y wooden latches, made 
with an axe or a knife, and fastened at night by a 
wooden pin stuck in above the bar. We got water 
from the river close at hand ; a plank run out into 
the stream forming what they called " a wharf," to 
let us get depth enough for our pitchers and pails. 

Besides the house, my brother had got a barn 
built not far from the house — of course a log one — 
on the piece clear of trees. It was about the size of 
the house, but the chinks between the logs were not 
so carefully filled up as in it. The squirrels, indeed, 
soon found this out, and were constantly running in 
and out when we had any grain in it. The upper 



30 We get Oxen and Cows. 

part was to hold our hay, and half of the ground- 
floor was for our other crops, the cows having the 
remainder for their habitation. We bought a yoke 
of oxen — that is, two — a few days after our arrival, 
and we began with two cows, one of them a pretty 
fair milker, but the other, which had been bought at 
an extra price, was chosen by Robert for its fine 
red skin, and never had given much milk, and 
never did. The oxen, great unwieldy brutes, were 
pretty well broken; but they were so different from 
anything we had ever seen for ploughing or drawing 
a waggon, that we were all rather afraid of their 
horns at first, and not very fond of having anything 
to do with them. We had bought a plough and 
harrows, and I don't know what else, before coming 
up, and had brought a great many things besides 
from England, so that we had a pretty fair beginning 
in farm implements. An ox- waggon was very soon 
added to our purchases — a rough affair as could be. 
It was nothing but two planks for the bottom and 
one for each side, with short pieces at the ends, 
like the waggon-stage, on the road from Toronto — a 
long box on four wheels, about the height of a cart. 
The boards were quite loose, to let them rise and 
fall in going over the roads when they were bad. 
The oxen were fastened to this machine by a yoke, 
which is a heavy piece of hard wood, with a hollow 
at each end for the back of the necks of the oxen, 



Elejphant and Buckeye. 31 

and an iron ring in the middle, on the under side, to 
slip over a pin at the end of the waggon -pole, the 
oxen being secured to it by two thin collars of a 
tough wood called hickory, which were just pieces 
bent to fit their deep necks, the ends being pushed 
up through two holes in the yokes at each side, and 
fastened by pins at the top. There was no harness 
of any kind, and no reins, a long wand serving to 
guide them. I used at first to think it was a very 
brave thing to put the yoke on them or take it off. 

The names of our two were Elephant and Buck- 
eye, the one, as his name showed, a great creature, 
but as lazy as he was huge ; the other, a much 
nicer beast, somewhat smaller, and a far better 
worker. They were both red and white, and so 
patient and quiet that I used to be ashamed of my- 
self when I got angry at them for their solemn slow- 
ness and stupidity. Had we been judges of cattle 
we might have got much better ones for the money 
they cost us; but my brother Andrew, who bought 
them, had never had any more to do with oxen till 
then than to help to eat them at dinner. However, 
we never bought anything more from the man who 
sold us them. 

Our first concern when we had got fairly into the 
house was to help to get the furniture and luggage 
brought from the wharf, two miles off, for we had to 
leave everything except our bedding there on land- 



32 Unpacking our Stores. 

ing. It was a great job to get all into the waggon, 
and then to open it after reaching the house. The 
wharf was a long wooden structure, built of logs 
driven into the shallow bed of the river for perhaps 
a hundred yards out to the deep water, and planked 
over. There was a broad place at the end to turn a 
waggon, but so much of it was heaped up with what 
they called " cordwood" — that is, wood for fuel, cut 
four feet long — that it took some management to get 
this done. A man whom we had hired as servant 
of all work, at two pounds and his board and lodg- 
ing a-month, brought down the waggon, and I shall 
never forget how we laughed at his shouting and 
roaring all the way to the oxen, as he walked at 
their heads with a long beech wand in his hand. He 
never ceased bellowing at them in rough, angry 
names, except to vary them by orders, such as 
Haw ! Gee ! Woa ! Hup ! which were very ridi- 
culous when roared at their ears loud enough to 
have let them know his wishes if they had been on 
the other side of the river. Somehow, every one 
who drives oxen in Canada seems to have got into 
the same plan ; we ourselves, indeed, fell into it more 
than I would have thought after a time. When we 
had begun to move the luggage, what boxes on boxes 
had to be lifted ! We all lent a hand, but it was 
hard work. There was the piano, and the eight- day 
clock, in a box like a coffin, and carpets, and a huge 



What some of our Neighbours brought. 33 

wardrobe, packed full of I don't know what, large 
enough to have done for a travelling show, and boxes 
of books, and crockery, and tables, and a great car- 
penter's chest, not to speak of barrels of oatmeal, 
and flour, and salt, and one of split peas. I think 
the books were the heaviest, except that awful ward- 
robe and the chest of drawers, which were all packed 
full of something. But they paid over and over for 
all the trouble and weight, proving the greatest pos- 
iible blessing. If we had not brought them we 
Fould have turned half savages, I suppose, for there 
^ere none to buy nearer than eighty or ninety miles, 
id, besides, we would not have had money to buy 
lem. We had a whole set of Sir Walter Scott's 
charming stories, which did us a world of good, both 
by helping us to spend the winter evenings plea- 
itly, by the great amount of instruction in history 
id antiquarian lore they contained, and by showing 
my young sisters, especially, that all the world were 
lot like the rude people about us. They got a taste 
for elegance and refinement from them that kept 
them ladies in their feelings while they had only the 
life of servants. 

When we had got all the things into the house, 
the next thing was to unpack them. A large pier- 
glass, whicjji would have been very useful, but rather 
out of the way in such a house, was discovered to be 
shivered to fragments ; and some crockery had found 



34 What some of our Neighbours br&ugM* 

the shaking on the journey too much for its powers 
of resistance. That horrid wardrobe, which had 
sprained our backs to get on the waggon, would 
barely go in at the door, and we were very much 
afraid at first, that, after bringing it more than three 
thousand miles, we should have to roof it over, cut 
holes in it, and make it a hen-house. It was all but 
too large, like the picture in the " Yicar of Wake- 
field," which would not go in at any door when it 
was brought home. There was not room for nearly 
all our furniture, and one end of my sisters' loft was 
packed like a broker's store-room with part of it. 
My brother's being in America before had, however, 
saved us from bringing as outrageous things as some 
who afterwards settled in the neighbourhood. I re- 
member one family who brought ever so many huge 
heavy grates, not knowing that there was no coal in 
Canada, and that they were useless. They would, 
indeed, be able to get Ohio coal now, in the larger 
towns ; but there was none then anywhere. The 
only fuel burned all through the country parts, in 
fireplaces, is, still, great thick pieces of split logs, four 
feet long. One settler from Ireland had heard that 
there were a great many rattlesnakes in Canada ; and 
as he had been a cavalry volunteer, and had the ac- 
coutrements, he brought a brass helmet, a regulation 
sabre, buckskin breeches, and jack-boots with him, 
that he might march safely through the jungle which 



What some of our Neighbours brought. 35 

he supposed he should find on his route. The young 
clergyman who afterwards came out had a different 
fear. He thought there might be no houses for him 
to sleep in at nights, and brought out a hammock to 
swing up under the trees. What he thought the people 
to whom he was to preach lived in, I don't know ; 
perhaps he fancied we cooked our dinners under the 
trees, and lived without houses, like the Indians. In 
some countries, hammocks are used in travelling 
through uninhabited places, on account of the poi- 
sonous insects on the ground and the thickness of 
the vegetation ; but in Canada such a thing is never 
heard of, houses being always within reach in the 
parts at all settled ; and travellers sleep on the ground 
when beyond the limits of civilization. But to 
sleep in the open air at all makes one such a figure 
before morning with mosquito-bites, that nobody 
would try it a second time, if he could help it. I 
was once on a journey up Lake Huron, of which I 
shall speak by and bye, where we had to sleep a 
night on the ground, and, what with ants running 
over us, and with the mosquitoes, we had a most 
wretched time of it. A friend who was with me had 
his nose so bitten that it was thicker above than 
below, and looked exactly as if it had been turned 
upside down in the dark. 

It took us some time to get everything fairly in 
order, but it was all done after a while. We were all 
d2 



36 Hot Days. 

in good health; everything before us was new; and 
the weather, though very warm, was often delightful 
in the evenings. Through the day it was sometimes 
very oppressive, and we had hot nights now and then 
that were still worse. A sheet seemed as heavy as if 
it had been a pair of blankets, and when we were 
sure the door was fast, we were glad to throw even it 
aside. We always took a long rest at noon till the 
sun got somewhat cooler, but the heat was bad enough 
even in the shade. I have known it pretty nearly, 
if not quite, 100° some days in the house. I remem- 
ber hearing some old gentlemen once talking about 
it, and telling each other how they did to escape it : 
the one declared that the coolest part of the house 
was below the bed, and the other, a very stout clergy- 
man, said he found the only spot for study was in the 

cellar. Captain W used to assert that it was 

often as hot in Canada as in the West Indies. 

My sisters never went with so little clothing before ; 
and, indeed, it was astonishing how their circum- 
ference collapsed under the influence of the sun. As 
to us, we thought only of coolness. Coarse straw 
hats, with broad brims, costing about eightpence 
apiece, with a handkerchief in the crown to keep the 
heat off the head ; a shirt of blue cotton, wide trow- 
sers of dark printed calico, or, indeed, of anything 
thin, and boots, composed our dress. But this was 
elaborate, compared with that adopted by a gentle- 



Bush Costumes. 37 

man who was leading a bachelor life back in the 
bush some distance from us. A friend went to see 
him one day, and found him frying some bacon on a 
fire below a tree before his door; — a potato-pot hang- 
ing by a chain over part of it, from a bough — his only 
dress being a shirt, boots, a hat, and a belt round his 
waist, with a knife in it. He had not thought of any 
one penetrating to his wilderness habitation, and 
laughed as heartily at being caught in such a plight 
as my friend did at catching him. For my part, I 
thought I should be cooler still if I turned up my 
shirt- sleeves ; but my arms got forthwith so tanned 
and freckled, that even yet they are more useful than 
beautiful. One day there chanced to be a torn place 
on my shoulder, which I did not notice on going out. 
I thought, after a time, that is was very hot, but took 
it for granted it could not be helped. When I came 
in at dinner, however, I was by no means agreeably 
surprised when my sister Margaret called out to me, 
" George, there's a great blister on your shoulder," 
which sure enough there was. I took care to have 
always a whole shirt after that. 

We had hardly been a month on the river when we 
heard that a man, fresh from England, who had been 
at work for a neighbour, came into the house one after- 
noon, saying he had a headache, and died, poor fellow, 
in less than an hour. He had had a sun-stroke. Some- 
times those who are thus seized fall down at once in a fit 



38 Sun-strokes. 

of apoplexy, as was the case with Sir Charles Napier 
in Scinde. I knew a singular instance of what the 
sun sometimes does, in the case of a young man, a 
plumber by trade, who had been working on a roof 
in one of the towns on a hot day. He was struck 
down in an instant, and was only saved from death 
by a fellow- workman. For a time he lost his reason, 
but that gradually came back. He lost the power of 
every part of his body, however, except his head, 
nothing remaining alive, you may say, but that. He 
could move or control his eyes, mouth, and neck, but 
that was all. He had been a strong man, but he 
wasted away till his legs and arms were not thicker 
than a child's. Yet he got much better eventually, 
after being bedridden for several years, and when I last 
was at his house, could creep about on two crutches. 
I used to pity my sisters, who had to work over the 
fire, cooking for us. It was bad enough for girls who 
had just left a fashionable school in England, and were 
quite young yet, to do work which hitherto they had 
always had done for them, but to have to stoop over 
a fire in scorching hot weather must have been very 
exhausting. They had to bake in a large iron pot, 
set upon embers, and covered with them over the 
lid; and the dinner had to be cooked on the logs 
in the kitchen fireplace, until we thought of setting 
up a contrivance made by laying a stout stick on two 
upright forked ones, driven into the ground at each 



Going to Mill. 39 

end of a fire kindled outside, and hanging the pots 
from it. While I think of it, what a source of annoy- 
ance the cooking on the logs in the fireplace was 
before we got a crane ! I remember we once 
had a large brass panfull of raspberry jam, nicely 
poised, as we thought, on the burning logs, and just 
ready to be lifted off, when, lo ! some of the fire- 
wood below gave way and down it went into the 
ashes ! Baking was a hard art to learn. What 
bread we had to eat at first ! We used to quote 
Hood's lines — 

1 ' Who has not heard of home-made bread — 
That heavy compound of putty and lead ?" 

But practice, and a few lessons from a neighbour's 
wife, made my sisters quite expert at it. We had 
some trouble in getting flour, however, after our first 
stock ran out. The mill was five miles off, and, as 
we had only oxen, it was a tedious job getting to it 
and back again. One of my brothers used to set off 
at five in the morning, with his breakfast over, and 
was not back again till nine or ten at night — that is, 
after we had wheat of our own. It had to be ground 
while he waited. But it was not all lost time, for 
the shoemaker's was near the mill, and we always 
made the same journey do for both. In winter 
we were sometimes badly off when our flour ran 
short. On getting to the mill, we, at times, found 
the wheel frozen hard, and that the miller had no 



40 Our part of the housework. 

flour of his own to sell. I have known us for a fort- 
night having to use potatoes instead of bread, when 
our neighbours happened to be as ill-provided as we, 
and could not lend us a " baking." 

But baking was not all that was to be done in a 
house like ours, with so many men in it. No 
servants could be had ; the girls round, even when 
their fathers had been labourers in England, were 
quite above going out to service, so that my sisters 
had their hands full. We tried to help them as 
much as we could, bringing in the wood for the fire, 
and carrying all the water from the river. Indeed, 
I used to think it almost a pleasure to fetch the 
water, the river was so beautifully clear. Never was 
crystal more transparent. I was wont to idle as well 
as work while thus employed, looking at the beautiful 
stones and pebbles that lay at the bottom, far beyond 
the end of the plank that served for our " wharf." 



41 



CHAPTEE III. 

Clearing the land — David's bragging, and the end of it — 
Burning the log-heaps — Our logging bee — What prejudice 
can do — Our fences and crops nearly burned — The woods 
on fire — Building a snake- fence — " Shingle" pigs give us 
sore trouble — "Breachy" horses and cattle. 

The first thing that had to be done with the land 
was to make a farm of it, by cutting down and burn- 
ing as many trees as we could before the end of 
August, to have some room for sowing wheat in the 
first or second week of September. It was now well 
on in June, so that we had very little time. How- 
ever, by hiring two men to chop (we didn't board or 
lodge them) and setting our other hired man to help, 
and with the addition of what my brothers Eobert and 
David could do, we expected to get a tolerably-sized 
field ready. Henry and I were too young to be of 
much use; Henry, the elder, being only about fif- 
teen. As to Andrew, he could not bear such work, 
and paid one of the men to work for him. Yet both 
he and we had all quite enough to do, in the lighter 
parts of the business. We had got axes in Toronto, 
and our man fitted them into the crooked handles 



42 Clearing the Land. 

which they use in Canada. A British axe, with a 
long, thin blade, only set the men a laughing ; and, 
indeed, it chanced to be a very poor affair, for one 
day the whole face of it flew off as Eobert was making 
a furious cut with it at a thistle. The Canadian 
axes were shaped like wedges, and it was wonderful 
to see how the men made the chips fly out of a tree 
with them. We got up in the morning with the sun, 
and went out to work till breakfast, the men whack- 
ing away with all their might ; Nisbet, our own man, 
as we called him, snorting at every stroke, as if that 
helped him, and my two elder brothers using their 
axes as well as they could. We, younger hands, had, 
for our part, to lop off the branches when the trees 
were felled. My brothers soon got to be very fair 
choppers, and could finish a pretty thick tree sooner 
than you would suppose. But it was hard work, for 
some of the trees were very large. One in particular, 
an elm, which the two men attacked at the same 
time, was so broad across the stump, after it was cut 
down, that Nisbet, who was a fair-sized man, when 
he lay down across it, with his head at the edge on 
one side, did not reach with his feet to the other. 
But, thicker or thinner, all came down as we ad- 
vanced. The plan was to make, first, a slanting stroke, 
and, then, another, straight in, to cut off the chip thus 
made; thus gradually reaching the middle, leaving a 
smooth, flat stump about three feet high underneath, 



Clearing the Land. 43 

and a slope inwards above. The one side done, they 
began the same process with the other, hacking away 
chip after chip from the butt, till there was not enough 
left to support the mass above. Then came the signal 
of the approaching fall by a loud crack of the thin 
strip that was left uncut; on hearing which, we 
looked up to see which way the huge shaft was coming, 
and would take to our heels out of its reach, if it 
threatened to fall in our direction. It is wonderful, 
however, how exactly a skilful chopper can deter- 
mine beforehand how a tree shall come down. They 
sometimes manage, indeed, to aim one so fairly at 
a smaller one, close at hand, as to send it, also, to the 
ground with the blow. Accidents rarely happen, 
though, sometimes, a poor man runs the wrong way 
and gets killed. What a noise the great monarchs 
of the forest made as they thundered down ! It was 
like firing off a great cannon; and right glad we 
were when we had a good many such artillery to fire 
off in a day. But it was often dreadfully hot work, 
and my brothers seemed as if they should never 
drink enough. I used to bring them a small pailful 
of water at a time, and put it on the shady side of a 
stump, covering it over with some green thing 
besides, to keep it cool. The cows and oxen seemed 
to take as much pleasure as ourselves in our pro- 
gress, for no sooner was a tree down than they would 
be among its branches, munching off the tender ends 



44 David's Bragging, and the end of it. 

as if they were great delicacies in their eyes. It was 
harder to keep them out of harm's way than our- 
selves, and many a time I was half afraid a tree 
would be down on me before I got them out ot 
danger. Indeed, we had one loss, though only a 
small one. "We had been talking over night about 
cattle being killed, and David, who was always a 
great brag, had told us that " he thought it all 
stupidity ; he didn't know how people killed 
beasts ; he could chop for years and never hurt 
anything, if there were ever so many cattle about." 
Next morning, however, before breakfast, we were 
all hard at work, and the oxen and cows were busy 
with the twigs as usual, when a fine little calf we had 
got with one of the cows, wandered off in David's 
direction, just as a tree he was at was about to fall; 
and, presently, while he was all excitement about its 
going the right way for himself, it was down smash 
on the poor calf, which was, of course, gone in a 
moment. We were sorry for the unfortunate little 
creature, but we could not help laughing amidst all 
at the face David put on. "It was very singular — 
very. He couldn't account for it; how could he 
think a calf would leave its mother ?" But he said 
no more about the stupidity of people who killed 
oxen or cows while chopping. 

Working hard every day, it was surprising what a 
piece we soon felled. When we had got as much 



Burning the Log -heaps. 45 

down as we thought we could clear off in time for 
the wheat, we gave the rest a respite for a while, and 
set to getting rid of those we had already overthrown. 
The straightest of them were selected for rails, with 
which to fence our intended field ; all the others were to 
be remorselessly burned, stock and branch. The first 
step towards this had been taken already, by us lads 
having cut off the branches from each tree as it was 
felled, and heaped them together in different spots. 
The trunks of the trees had next to be cut into pieces 
about ten feet long, those intended for rails being left 
somewhat longer. I wonder how often the axes rose 
and fell during these weeks. Even my brothers be- 
gan to be able to use them more skilfully, their stumps 
beginning to look smooth and clean cut, instead of 
being hacked in a thousand ridges, as at first. How 
an English carpenter's heart would have grieved over 
the destruction of so much splendid wood ! The 
finest black walnut, and oak, and maple, was slashed 
at from morning to night, with no thought on our 
parts but to get it out of the way as quickly as 
possible. 

Everything was, at last, ready for the grand 
finishing act, but that required the help of some 
neighbours, so that we had to call another " bee." 
The logs had to be rolled together and piled up for 
burning, which would have taken us too long if left 
to ourselves alone. We got a good woman from a 



46 Our Logging Bee, 

farm not far off to come in to help my sisters in their 
preparations, for there is always a great deal of 
cooking on these occasions. Salt beef and salt pork 
were to form the centre dishes at the dinner, but 
there was to be a great array of pies and tarts, for 
which we bought part of the fruit across the river, 
and, of the rest, there were pumpkins, which we got 
from settlers near at hand, and we had plums enough, 
very good though wild, from trees in our own bush. 
Tea, with cream to every one's taste, formed the 
principal beverage, though the most of the men 
wanted to get whisky besides. But it almost always 
leads to drunkenness and fighting, so that we did 
without it. On the day appointed there was a very 
good muster — perhaps twenty men altogether. They 
came immediately after breakfast, and we took care 
to be ready for them. 

Our oxen were brought to the ground with their 
yoke on, and a long chain fastened to the ring in it, 
and two of the men brought each another yoke, so 
that we were noisy enough and had plenty of excite- 
ment. Two men got it as their task to drive, others 
fixed the chains round the logs, and drew them as 
near each other as possible, in lots of about six or 
seven, and the rest had to lift each lot, one log on 
another, into piles. Henry and I were set to gather 
the loose brush that was left, and throw it on the top 
of the heaps, and thrust the dry rotten sticks lying 



What Prejudice can do. 47 

about, into the holes between the logs, to help them 
to burn. It was astonishing to see how the oxen 
walked away with their loads. Standing as quiet as 
if they could not move, except when their tails were 
sent to do duty on some troublesome flies, their faces 
as solemnly stupid as possible, the first shout of the 
driver made them lean instantly against their yoke 
in a steady pull, which moved almost any log to 
which they might be chained. Horses would have 
jumped and tugged, and the log would have stuck 
where it was, but the solid strain of the oxen, their 
two heads often together, and their bodies far apart, 
was irresistible. Off they walked with huge cuts of 
trees, ten feet long, as if they had been trifles. It 
was a wonder how they could stand dragging such 
heavy weights over the rough ground, with nothing 
but the thin wooden collar round their necks, against 
which to press. A horse needs a padded collar, but 
an ox doesn't seem to suffer from the want of it. In 
Nova Scotia, which I afterwards visited, and also in 
Lower Canada, oxen are harnessed by the horns, and 
-you are only laughed at if you say that it seems cruel. 
I believe if they were yoked by the tail in any 
country, the people who used them in that way would 
stand up for its superiority to any other. Prejudice 
is a wonderful thing for blinding men. I have heard 
of a gentleman in the East Indies, who felt for the la- 
bourers having to carry the earth from some public work 



48 Burning the Logs. 

they were digging, in baskets, on their shoulders, and 
got a number of wheelbarrows made for them, showing 
them himself how to use them, and how much better 
they were than their own plan. But, next morning, 
when he came to see how they were liking the new 
system, what was his astonishment to find that they 
had turned the barrows also into baskets, carrying 
them on their shoulders, with a man at each handle 
and one at the wheel ! 

With a due rest for dinner and supper, an extra 
time being taken in the middle of the day to escape 
the heat, and with a wonderful consumption of eat- 
ables, including beef and pork, pies, tarts, pickles, 
puddings, cakes, tea, and other things, at each meal, 
we got through the day to the satisfaction of all, 
and had now only to get everything burned off. 

The next day it was slightly windy, which was in 
our favour, and, still better, the wind was blowing 
away from our house and barn. The burning was 
as thorough as we could have desired, but it was 
hot work. We brought some wood embers from the 
house, and laid them on the top of one of the logs, 
on the side next the wind. Then we piled chips and 
splinters on them, which were soon in flames, and 
from them there soon was a grand blaze of the whole 
pile. Thus we went on, from one to another, until 
they were all a-fire. But the rolling the pieces to- 
gether as they burned away, and the stuffing odd 



Our Fences and Crops nearly burned. 49 

ends into the hollows to keep up the flame, was wild 
work. We ran about all day, gathering up every 
bit of branch or dead wood we could find, to get a 
clean sweep made of everything at once. What we 
were like when all was over, with our black faces 
and hands, and smudged shirts and trowsers, may be 
easily fancied. But, after all, one day was not 
enough to get rid of the whole. It was days before 
we got everything burned, the last pile being made 
up of the fragments of all the rest that still re- 
mained. 

We were fortunate in not having anything set on 
fire which we wished to keep from being burned. I 
have known of many cases where dried leaves and 
pieces of dead wood, and the thick roots of the grass, 
and the coat of vegetable matter always found in the 
soil of the forest, kindled, in spite of every effort to 
prevent it, the fire running along, far and near, in the 
ground, and setting everything it reached in a blaze. 
I remember, some years after our arrival, Henry 
was one day going some distance, and thought it 
would be as well, before he started, to fire some 
brush heaps that were standing in a field that was 
being cleared, quite a distance back, along the side 
road; but he had hardly done so and setoff, than my 
sisters, Margaret and Eliza, who were alone in the 
house, noticed that the fire had caught the ground, 
and was making for the strip at the side of the road, 

E 



50 Our Fences and Crops nearly burned. 

in the direction of the wheat field. It was leaping 
from one thing to another, as the wind carried it, 
and had already put the long fence next it, running 
along six or seven acres, in great danger. If it had 
once kindled that, it might have swept on towards 
the house and barn and burned up everything we 
had ; but my sisters were too thorough Canadians 
by this time to let it have its own way. Off the 
two set to the burning bank, and began to take 
down the fence rail by rail, and carry each across 
the road, where the fire could not reach them. 
Fortunately there was only stubble in the field, and 
the black ploughed earth checked the fire, but it 
kept running along the road, breaking out afresh 
after they had thought it was done, and keeping 
them fighting with the rails the whole day, until 
Henry came back at night. A man, who passed in 
a waggon when they were in the worst of their 
trouble, never offered them any help, poor girls, but 
drove on, " guessing" they " had a pretty tight job 
thar." Thanks to their activity there was no mis- 
chief done, except the taking down the fence ; but it 
was a wonder it did not hurt my sisters, as the rails 
are so heavy that men never lift more than one at 
a time, or very seldom. 

Another instance occurred about the same time, 
but on a larger scale. One day, on looking east 
from the house, we noticed, about two miles off, 



The Woods on Fire. 51 

great clouds of smoke rising from the woods, and of 
course we were instantly off to see what it was. We 
found that ground-fire had got into a piece of the 
forest which we called the " Windfall," a broad belt 
of huge pine trees, which had been thrown down by 
some terrible whirlwind, I don't know how long 
before. Some of them had already mouldered in 
parts; others had been charred by some former 
burning, and would have lasted for almost any length 
of time. They lay on each other in the wildest and 
thickest confusion, making a barricade that would 
have kept back an army of giants, and reaching for 
miles, their great branches rising in thousands, black 
and naked, into the air. The fire had fairly caught 
them, and was leaping and crackling from limb to 
limb and sending up volumes of the densest smoke. 
It was a terrible sight to see, and no one could tell 
how far it would extend. We were afraid it would 
spread to the forest at each side, and it did catch 
many of the trees next it, fixing on them, sometimes 
at the ground, sometimes up among the branches, 
while, sometimes, the first indication of their being on 
fire would be by the dead part at the very top, 
nearly a hundred feet, I should think, in some cases, 
from the earth, flaming out like a star. At night 
the sight was grand in the extreme — the blazing 
mass of prostrate trees in the Windfall, and, at its 
edges, tongues of flame, running up the huge trunks, 
E 2 



52 Building a SnaJce-fence. 

or breaking out here and there on their sides. At 
one place a field came very near the path of the 
conflagration, and it was feared that, though the 
trees did not come close enough to set the fence on 
fire by contact, it might be kindled by the burning 
twigs and inflammable matter that covered the 
ground. A plough was therefore brought, and 
several broad furrows were run outside, that the 
ground-fire might thus be stopped. The plan was 
effectual, and the fence remained untouched; but 
the fire among the dead pines spread day after day, 
till it had burned up everything before it, to an open- 
ing in the forest on the other side, where it at last 
died out. 

As soon as the log-piles had been fairly disposed 
of, we had, for our next job, to get the rails put up 
round the field thus cleared. They were made, from 
the logs that had been saved for the purpose, by one 
of the choppers, whom we retained. First of all, he 
sank his axe into one end of the log, and then he 
put an iron or wooden wedge into the cleft he had 
made, and drove it home with a mallet. Then, into 
the crack made by the first wedge, he put a second, 
and that made it split so far down that only another 
was generally needed to send it in two. The same 
process was gone through with the halves, and then 
with the parts, until the whole log lay split into 
pieces, varying in thickness from that of a man's leg to 



Building a Snake-fence. 53 

as much again, as they were wanted light or heavy. 
You must remember that they were twelve feet long. 
To make them into a fence, you laid a line of them 
down on the ground in a zigzag, like a row of very 
broad V's, the end of the second resting on that of 
the first, and so on, round the corners, till you came 
to within the length of a rail from where you started. 
The vacant space was to be the entrance to the field. 
Then five or six more were laid, one on another, all 
round, in the same way — or rather, were put up in 
short, complete portions, till all were in their places. 
The ends, at each side of the entrance, were next 
lifted and laid on pins put between two upright posts 
at each side. To make a gate, we had a second set 
of posts, with pins, close to the others, and on these 
pins, rails were laid which could be taken out when 
wanted, and served very well for a gate, but we 
boys almost always went over the fence rather than 
go round to it. To keep all the rails in their places 
we had to put up what they called " stakes" at each 
angle — that is, we had to take shorter rails, sharp- 
ened a little at the end, and push one hard into the 
ground on each side of the fence, at every overlapping 
of the ends of the rails, leaning them firmly against 
the top rail, so that they crossed each other above. 
The last thing was to lay a light rail all round into 
the crosses thus made, so as to " lock" them, and to 
make the whole so high that no beast could get over it. 



54 u Shingle Pigs" give tis sore ironlle. 

We used to laugh about what we were told of 
the pigs and cattle and horses getting through and 
over fences ; but we soon found out that it was no 
laughing matter. The pigs were our first enemies, 
for, though we had made the lowest four rails very 
close, as we thought, to keep them out, we found we 
had not quite succeeded. There were some of a 
horrible breed, which they called the " shingle pig," 
as thin as a slate, with long snouts, long coarse 
bristles, long legs, and a belly like a greyhound — 
creatures about as different from an English pig as 
can be imagined. They could run like a horse, no- 
thing would fatten them, and they could squeeze 
themselves sideways through an opening where you 
would have thought they could never have got in. 
If any hollow in the ground gave them the chance of 
getting below the rails, they were sure to find it out, 
and the first thing you would see, perhaps, would be 
a great gaunt skeleton of a sow, with six or eight 
little ones, rooting away in the heart of your field. 
TTith old fences they made short work, for if there 
were a piece low and ricketty they would fairly 
push it over with their horrid long noses, and enter 
with a triumphant grunt. Although they might 
have spared our feelings, and left our first little field 
alone, they did not, but never rested snuffing round 
the fence, till they found out a place or two below it 
that had not been closely enough staked, through 



" Shingle Pigs" give tis sore trouble. 55 

which they squeezed themselves almost every day, until 
we found out where they were and stopped them up. 
The brutes were so cunning that they would never 
go in before you, but would stand looking round the 
end of the fence with their wicked eyes till you were 
gone. Robert thought at first he could take revenge 
on them and whip them out of such annoying habits, 
and whenever the cry was given that " the pigs were 
in," if he were within reach he would rush for the 
whip, and over the fence, to give them the weight of 
it. But they were better at running than he was, 
and, though he cut off the corners to try to head 
them, I don't know that, in all the times he ran 
himself out of breath, he ever did more than make 
them wonder what his intention could be in giving 
them such dreadful chases. We learned to be wiser 
after a time, and by keeping down our ill nature 
and driving them gently, found they would make 
for the place where they got in, and, by going out at 
it, discover it to us. I only once saw a pig run 
down, and it wasn't a "shingle" one. Neither 
Eobert, nor any of us — for we were all, by his 
orders, tearing after it in different directions — could 
come near it ; but a man we had at the time started 
off like an arrow in pursuit, and \erj soon had it by 
the hind leg, lifting it by which, the same instant, to 
poor piggy's great astonishment, he sent it with a 
great heave over the fence, down on the grass out- 



56 " Breachy" Horses and Cattle. 

side. It was a small one, of course, else he could 
not have done it. A gentleman some miles above us 
used to be terribly annoyed by all the pigs of the 
neighbourhood, as he declared, getting round the end 
of his fence which ran into the river, and thought he 
would cure matters by running it out a rail farther. 
But they were not to be beaten, and would come to 
the outside, and swim round his fancied protection. 
He had to add a third length of rail before he 
stopped them, and it succeeded only by the speed of 
the current being too great for them to stem. 

But pigs were not the only nuisance. Horses and 
cattle were sometimes a dreadful trouble. A 
" breachy" horse, or ox, or cow — that is, one given 
to leap fences or break them down — is sure to lead 
all the others in the neighbourhood into all kinds of 
mischief. The gentleman who was so worried by 
the nautical powers of the pigs, used to be half dis- 
tracted by a black mare which ran loose in his 
neighbourhood, and led the way into his fields to a 
whole troop of horses, which, but for her, would 
have been harmless enough. If a fence were weak 
she would shove it over ; or if firm, unless it were 
very high indeed, she would leap over it, generally 
knocking off rails enough in doing so to let the others 
in. She took a fancy to a fine field of Indian corn he 
had a little way from his house, and night after night, 
when he had fairly got into bed, he would hear her 



" Breach f } Horses and Cattle. 57 

crashing over the fence into it, followed by all the 
rest. Of course he had to get up and dress himself, 
and then, after running about half an hour, through 
dewy corn as high as his head, to get them out 
again, he had to begin in the middle of the night to 
rebuild his broken rampart. Only think of this, re- 
peated night after night. I used to laugh at his nine 
or ten feet high fence, which I had to climb every 
time I went along the river side to see him, but he 
always put me off by saying — " Ah, you haven't a 
black mare down your way." And I am happy to 
say we had not. 

The cattle were no less accomplished in all forms 
of field-breaking villany than the pigs and horses. 
We had one brute of a cow, sometime after we came, 
that used deliberately to hook off the rails with her 
horns, until they were low enough to let her get her 
forelegs over, and then she leaned heavily on the 
rest until they gave way before her, after which she 
would boldly march in. She was an excellent milker, 
so that we did all we could to cure her — sticking a 
board on her horns, and hanging another over her 
eyes — but she had a decided taste for fence-breaking, 
and we had at last to sentence her to death, and take 
our revenge by eating her up through the winter, 
after she had been fattened. 



58 



CHAPTEE IV. 

We begin our preparations for sowing — Gadflies — Mosquitoes 
— Harrowing experiences — A huge fly — Sandflies — The 
poison of insects and serpents — Winter wheat — The 
wonders of plant- life— Our first " sport" — Woodpeckers — 
"Chitmunks"— The blue jay— The blue bird— The flight 
of birds. 

When we had got our piece of ground all cleared, 
except the great ugly stumps, and. had got our fence up, 
our next job was to get everything ready for sowing. 
First of all the ashes had to be scattered, a pro- 
cess that liberally dusted our clothes and faces. Then 
we brought up the oxen and fastened them by their 
chain to the sharp end of a three-cornered harrow, 
and with this we had to scratch the soil, as if just to 
call its attention to what we wished at its hand. It 
was the most solemnly slow work I ever saw, to get 
over the ground with our yoke — solemn to all but 
the driver, but to him the very reverse. The 
shouting and yelling on his part never stopped, as he 
had to get them round this stump and clear of that 
one. But, if you looked only at the oxen you forgot 
the noise in watching whether they moved at all or 



Gadflies. 59 

not. Elephant would lift his great leg into the air 
and keep it motionless for a time, as if he were 
thinking whether he should ever set it down again, 
and, of course, Buckeye could not get on faster than 
his mate. I tried the harrowing a little, but I confess 
I didn't like it. We were persecuted by the gadflies, 
which lighted on the poor oxen and kept them in 
constant excitement, as, indeed, they well might. 
Wherever they get a chance they pierce the skin on 
the back with a sharp tube, which shuts up and draws 
out like a telescope, at the end of their body, pro- 
truding an egg through it into the creature attacked, 
and this egg^ when hatched, produces a grub which 
makes a sore lump round it and lives in it, till it has 
attained its full size, when it comes out, lets itself 
fall to the ground and burrows in it, reappearing 
after a time as a winged gadfly to torment other 
cattle. Then there were the long tough roots run- 
ning in every direction round the stumps, and 
catching the teeth of the harrow every little while, 
giving the necks of the poor oxen uncommon jerks, 
and needing the harrow to be lifted over them each 
time. There was another trouble also, in the shape 
of the mosquitoes, which worried driver and oxen 
alike. They are tiny creatures, but they are never- 
theless a great nuisance. In the woods in summer, or 
near them, or, indeed, wherever there is stagnant 
water, they are sure to sound their " airy trump." 



60 Mosquitoes. 

The wonderful quickness of the vibration of their 
wings makes a singing noise, which proclaims at 
once the presence of even a single tormentor. They 
rise in clouds from every pool, and even from the rain- 
water barrels kept near houses, where they may be 
seen in myriads, in their first shape after leaving the 
egg, as little black creatures with large heads, and tails 
perpetually in motion, sculling themselves with great 
speed hither and thither, but always tail foremost. 
A single night is sufficient to change them from this 
state, and send them out as full-blown mosquitoes, so 
that even if there be not one in your room on going 
to bed, you may have the pleasure of hearing several 
before morning, if you are in the habit of indulging 
in the luxury of washing in rain-water, or, worse 
still, to find your nose, and cheeks, or hands, orna- 
mented by itchy lumps, which show that the enemy 
has been at you, after all, while you slept. In 
Canada they are not half an inch long, and, until 
distended with blood, are so thin as to be nearly in- 
visible. Their instrument of torture is a delicate 
sucker, sticking down from the head and looking 
very like a glass thread, the end of it furnished with 
sharp edges which cut the skin. I have sometimes 
let one take its will of the back of my hand, just to 
watch it. Down it comes, almost too light to be 
felt, then out goes the lancet, its sheath serving for a 
support by bending up on the surface of the skin in 



Mosquitoes. 61 

proportion as the sucker sinks. A sharp prick and 
the little vampire is drinking your blood. A minute, 
and his thin, shrivelled body begins to get fuller, 
until, very soon, he is three times the mosquito he 
was when he began, and is quite red with his surfeit 
shining through his sides. But, though he is done 
you are not, for some poisonous secretion is instilled 
into the puncture, which causes pain, inflammation, 
and swelling, long after he is gone. We had a little 
smooth-haired terrier which seemed to please their 
taste almost as much as we ourselves did. When it 
got into the woods, they would settle on the poor 
brute, in spite of all its efforts, till it was almost black 
with them. Horses and oxen get no rest from their 
attacks, and between them and the horse-flies I have 
a the sides of the poor things running with blood. 
•• Dey say ebery ting has some use," said a negro to 
me one day ; "I wonder what de mosqueeter s good 
for ?" So do I. A clergyman who once visited us 
declared that he thought they and all such pests were 
part of what is meant in the Bible by the power of 
the devil ; but whether he was right or not is beyond 
me to settle. Perhaps they keep off fevers from 
animals by bleeding them as they do. But you know 
what Socrates said, that it was the highest attain- 
ment of wisdom to feel that we know nothing, so 
that, even if we can't tell why they are there, we 
may be sure, that, if we knew as much as we might, 



62 A Huge Fly. 

we should find that they served some wise pur- 
pose. At the same time I have often been right 
glad to think that the little nuisances must surely 
have short commons in the unsettled districts, where 
there are no people nor cattle to torment. 

The harrowing was also my first special introduc- 
tion to the horse-flies — great horrid creatures that 
they are. They fastened on the oxen at every part, 
and stuck the five knives with which their proboscis 
is armed, deep into the flesh. They are as large as 
honey-bees, so that you may judge how much they 
torment their victims. I have seen them make a 
horse's flanks red with the blood from their bites. 
They were too numerous to be driven off by the long 
tails of either oxen or horses, and, to tell the truth, 
I was half afraid to come near them lest they should 
take a fancy to myself. It is common in travelling 
to put leafy branches of maple or some other tree 
over the horses' ears and head to protect them as far 
as possible. 

The largest fly I ever saw lighted on the fence , 
close to me, about this time. We had been frightened 
by stories of things as big as your thumb, that 
soused down on you before you knew it, but I never, 
before or since, saw such a giant of a fly as this 
fellow. It was just like a house-fly magnified a great 
many times, how many I should not like to say. I 
took to my heels in a moment for fear of instant 



Sand-flies. 03 

death, and saw no more of it. Whether it would 
have bitten me or not I cannot tell, but I was not at 
all inclined to try the experiment. 

All this time we have left the oxen pulling away at 
the harrow, but we must leave them a minute or two 
longer till we get done with all the flies at once. 
There is a little black speck called the sand-fly, which 
many think even worse than the mosquito. It comes 
in clouds, and is too small to ward off, and its bite 
causes acute pain for hours after. But, notwith- 
standing gadflies, mosquitoes, horse-flies, and this 
last pest, the sand-fly, we were better off than the 
South American Indians of whom Humboldt speaks, 
who have to hide all night three or four inches deep 
in the sand to keep themselves from mosquitoes as large 
as bluebottles ; and our cattle had nothing to contend 
with like such a fly as the tzetse, which, Dr. Livingstone 
tells us, is found in swarms on the South African rivers, 
a bite of which is certain death to any horse or ox. 

How curious it is, by the way, that any poison 
should be so powerful that the quantity left by the 
bite of a fly should be able to kill a great strong horse 
or an ox ; and how very wonderful it is, moreover, 
that the fly's body should secrete such a frightful 
poison, and that it should carry it about in it 
without itself suffering any harm ! Dr. Buckland, of 
the Life Guards, was once poisoned by some of the 
venom of a cobra di capello, a kind of serpent, getting 



64 Winter Wheat. 

below his nail, into a scratch he had given himself 
with a knife he had used in skinning a rat, which the 
serpent had killed. And yet the serpent itself could 
have whole glands full of it, without getting any 
hurt. But if the cobra were to bite its own body it 
would die at once. The scorpion can and does sting 
itself to death. 

When we had got our field harrowed over twice 
or thrice, till every part of it had been well scratched 
up, and the ashes well mixed with the soil, our next 
step was to sow it, after which came another harrow- 
ing, and then we had only to wait till the harvest next 
July, hoping we might be favoured with a good crop. 
That a blade so slight as that of young wheat should be 
able to stand the cold of the Canadian winter has always 
seemed to me a great wonder. It grows up the first 
year just like grass, and might be mistaken for it 
even in the beginning of the following spring. The 
snow which generally covers it during the long cold 
season is a great protection to it, but it survives even 
when it has been bare for long intervals together, 
though never, I believe, so strong, after such hardships 
suffered in its infancy. The snow not only protects, 
but, in its melting, nourishes, the young plant, so that 
not to have a good depth of it is a double evil. But, 
snow or not snow, the soil is almost always frozen 
like a rock, and yet the tender green blades live 
through it all, unless some thaw during winter expose 



The Wonders of Plant-life, 65 

the roots, and a subsequent frost seize them, in which 
case the plant dies. Large patches in many fields 
are thus destroyed in years when the snow is not 
deep enough. What survives must have suspended 
its life while the earth in which it grows is frozen. 
Yet, after being thus asleep for months — indeed, more 
than asleep, for every process of life must be stopped, 
the first breath of spring brings back its vigour, and 
it wakes as if it had been growing all the time. How 
wonderful are even the common facts of nature! 
The life of plants I have always thought very much 
so. Our life perishes if it be stopped for a very 
short time, but the beautiful robe of flowers and 
verdure with which the world is adorned is well nigh 
indestructible. Most of you know the story of Pope's 
weeping willow : the poet had received a present of 
a basket of figs from the Levant, and when opening 
it, discovered that part of the twigs of which it was 
made were already budding, from some moisture 
that had reached them, and this led him to plant 
one, which, when it had grown, became the stock 
whence all the Babylonian willows in England have 
come. Then we are told that seeds gathered from 
beneath the ashes at Pompeii, after being buried for 
eighteen hundred years, have grown on being brought 
once more to the light, and it has often been found 
that others brought up from the bottom of wells, 
when they were being dug, or from beneath accumu- 
lations of sand, of unknown age, have only to be 

F 



66 Woodpeckers. 

sown near the surface to commence instantly to grow. 
It is said that wheat found in the coffins of mummies 
in Egypt has sprung up freely when sown, but the 
proof of any having done so is thought by others 
insufficient. Yet there is nothing to make such a 
thing impossible, and perhaps some future explorer 
like Dr. Layard or Mr. Loftus, may come on grains 
older still, in Babylon or Nineveh, and give us bread 
from the wheat that Nebuchadnezzar or Semiramis 
used to eat. Indeed, M. Michelet tells us that some 
seeds found in the inconceivably ancient Diluvial 
drift readily grew on being sown. 

During the busy weeks in which we were getting 
our first field ready, we boys, though always out ol 
doors, were not always at work. Henry used to 
bring out his gun with him, to take a shot at any- 
thing he could see, and though there were not very 
many creatures round us, yet there were more when 
you looked for them than you would otherwise have 
thought. The woodpeckers were the strangest to us 
among them all. They would come quite near us, 
running up and down the trunks of the trees in 
every way, as flies run over a window-pane. There 
were three or four kinds : one, the rarest, known by 
being partly yellow; another, by the feathers on its 
back having a strange, hairy-like look ; the third was 
a smaller bird, about six inches long, but otherwise 
like its hairy relation ; the fourth, and commonest, was 
the red-headed woodpecker. This one gets its name 



WoodjoecJcers. 67 

from the beautiful crimson of its head and neck, and 
the contrast of this bright colour with the black and 
white of its body and wings, and with its black tail, 
makes it look very pretty. They would hght on stumps 
or trees close to us, running round to the other side till 
we passed, if we came very close, and then reappear- 
ing the next instant. They kept up a constant tap, 
tap, tapping with their heavy bills on the bark of 
any tree on which they happened to alight, running 
up the trunk, and stopping every minute with 
their tail resting on the bark to support them, 
and hammering as if for the mere love of the noise. 
Every grub or insect they thus discovered, was, in a 
moment, caught on their tongue, which was thrust 
out for the purpose. Henry shot one of them, after 
missing pretty often, for we were just beginning 
shooting as well as everything else, and we brought 
it to the house to let my sisters see it, and to have 
another look at it ourselves. Being a bit of an 
ornithologist, he pointed out to us how the toes were 
four in number — two before and two behind — and 
how they were spread out to give the creature as 
firm a hold as possible of the surface on which it 
was climbing, and how its tail was shaped like a 
wedge, and the feathers very strong, to prop it up 
while at work. Then there was the great heavy 
head and heavy bill, with the long thin neck, putting 
me in mind of a stone-breaker's hammer, with the 
thin handle and the heavy top. But its tongue was, 
f2 



68 Chitmunks. 

perhaps, the most curious part of the whole. There 
were two long, arched, tendon-like things, which 
reached from the tongue round the skull, and passed 
quite over it down to the root of the bill at the nos- 
trils ; and, inside the wide circle thus made, a muscle, 
fixed at its two ends, provided the means of thrust- 
ing out the tongue with amazing swiftness and to a 
great length, just as you may move forwards the top 
of a fishing-rod in an instant by pulling the line 
which runs from the tip to the reel. My brother 
Robert, who was of a religious disposition, could not 
help telling us, when we had seen all this, that he 
thought it just another proof of the wonderful wis- 
dom and goodness of God to see how everything 
was adapted to its particular end. 

One little creature used to give us a great deal 
of amusement and pleasure. It was what Nisbet 
called a chitmunk, the right name of it being the 
ground-squirrel. It was a squirrel in every respect, 
except that, instead of the great bushy tail turned up 
over the back, it had a rounded hairy one ; which 
was short and straight, and was only twitched up 
and down. The little things were to be seen every 
now and then on any old log, that marked where a 
tree had fallen long before. The moment we looked at 
them they would stare at us with their great black eyes, 
and, if we moved, .they were into some hole in the log, 
or over the back of it, and out of sight in an instant. 



Chitmunks. 69 

We all felt kindly disposed towards them, and never 
tried to shoot them. I suppose they were looking 
for nuts on the ground, as they feed largely on them, 
and carry off a great many, as well as stores of other 
food, in little cheek-pouches which they have, that 
they may be provided for in winter. They do not 
make their houses, like the other squirrels, in holes 
in the trees, but dig burrows in the woods, under 
logs, or in hillocks of earth, or at the roots of the 
trees, forming a winding passage down to it, and 
then making two or three pantries, as I may call 
them, at the sides of their nest, or sitting and sleep- 
ing-room, for their extra food. They do not often go 
up the trees, but if they be frightened, and can- 
not get to their holes, they run up the trunks, and 
get from branch to branch with wonderful quickness. 
Sometimes we tried to catch one when it would thus go 
up some small, low tree, of which there were numbers 
on the edge of a stream two fields back on our farm ; 
but it was always too quick for us, and after making 
sure I had it, and climbing the tree to get hold of it, 
it would be off in some magical way before our eyes 
let us do our best. Then, at other times, we would 
try to catch one in an old log, but with no better 
success. Henry would get to the one end and I to 
the other, and make sure it couldn't get out. It 
always did get out, however, and all we could do 
was to admire its beautiful shape, with the squirrel 



70 The Blue Jay. 

head, and a soft brown coat which was striped with 
black, lengthwise, and its arch little tail, which was 
never still a moment. 

Some of the birds were the greatest beauties you 
could imagine. We would see one fly into the woods 
all crimson, or seemingly so, and perhaps, soon after, 
another, which was like a living emerald. They 
were small birds — not larger than a thrush — and not 
very numerous ; but I cannot trust myself to give 
their true names. The blue jay was one of th& pret- 
tiest of all the feathered folk that used to come and 
look at us. What a bright, quick eye it has ! what 
a beautiful blue crest to raise or let down as its 
pride or curiosity moves it or passes away ! how ex- 
quisitely its wings are capped with blue, and barred 
with black and white ! and its back — could anything 
be finer than the tint of blue on it ? Its very tail 
would be ornament enough for any one bird, with 
its elegant tapering shape, and its feathers barred so 
charmingly with black and white. But we got after- 
wards to have a kind of ill-will at the little urchins, 
when we came to have an orchard ; for greater thieves 
than they are, when the fancy takes them, it would 
be hard to imagine. When breeding, they generally 
kept pretty close to the woods ; but in September or 
October they would favour the gardens with visits ; 
and then woe to any fruit within reach ! But yet 
they ate so many caterpillars at times that I suppose 
we should not have grudged them a cherry feast 



The Blue Bird. 71 

occasionally. I am sure they must be great cox- 
combs, small though they be, for they are not much 
larger than a thrush, though the length of their tail 
makes them seem larger ; they carry their heads so 
pertly, like to show themselves off so well, and are 
so constantly raising and letting down their beautiful 
crest, as if all the time thinking how well they look. 
John James Audubon, the ornithologist, got a num- 
ber of them, of both sexes, alive, and tried to carry 
them over to England, to make us a present of the 
race, if it were able to live in our climate; but 
the poor things all sickened and died on the way. 

I must not forget the dear little blue bird, which 
comes all the way from the Far South as early as 
March, to stay the summer with us, not leaving till 
the middle or end of November, when he seems to 
bid a melancholy farewell to his friends, and returns 
to his winter retreat. In the spring and summer 
every place is enlivened with his cheerful song ; but 
with the change of the leaf in October it dies away 
into a single note, as if he too felt sorry that the 
beautiful weather was leaving. 

The blue bird is to America very much, in sum- 
mer, what the robin is to us in England in winter — 
hopping as familiarly as if it trusted every one, about 
the orchards and the fences. Sometimes it builds in 
a hole in an old apple-tree, for generation after gene- 
ration ; but very often it takes up its abode in little 
houses built specially for it, and fixed on a high pole, 



72 The Might of Birds. 

or on the top of some of the outhouses. We were 
sometimes amused to see its kindly ways while the 
hen was sitting on the nest. The little husband 
would sit close by her, and lighten her cares by sing- 
ing his sweetest notes over and over ; and, when he 
chanced to have found some morsel that he thought 
would please her — some insect or other — he would 
fly with it to her, spread his wing over her, and put 
it into her mouth. We used to take it for granted 
that it was the same pair that built year after year 
in the same spot, but I never heard of anything being 
done to prove it in any case. In that of other birds, 
however, this attachment to one spot has been very 
clearly shown. I have read somewhere of copper rings 
having been fastened round the legs of swallows, which 
were observed the year after to have returned, with 
this mark on them, to their former haunts. How is 
it that these tiny creatures can keep a note in their 
head of so long a journey as they take each autumn, 
and cross country after country straight to a place 
thousands of miles distant ? A man could not do it 
without all the helps he could get. I lose myself 
every now and then in the streets of any new city 
I may visit; and as to making my way across a 
whole kingdom without asking, I fear I would make 
only a very zigzag progress. Some courier pigeons, 
which one of the Arctic voyagers took to the Far 
North, on being let loose, made straight for the place 
to which they had been accustomed in Ayrshire, in 



The FllgU of Birds. 73 

an incredibly short time. Lithgow, the old traveller, 
tells ns that one of these birds will carry a letter from 
Bagdad to Aleppo, which is thirty days' journey at 
the Eastern rate of travel, in forty-eight hours, so 
that it could have had no hesitation, but must have 
flown straight for its distant home. They say that 
when on their long nights, they and other birds, such 
as swallows, soar to a great height, and skim round 
in circles for a time, as if surveying the bearings of 
the land beneath them; but what eyes they must 
have to see clearly over such a landscape as must 
open at so great an elevation ! and how little, after 
all, can that help them on a journey of thousands of 
miles ! Moore's beautiful verse speaks of the intent- 
ness with which the pigeon speeds to its goal, and 
how it keeps so high up in the air : — 

"The dove let loose in eastern skies, 
Returning fondly home, 
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies 
Where idler warblers roam." 

I have noticed that all birds, when on long flights, 
seek the upper regions of the air : the ducks and 
swans, that used to pass over us in the spring, on 
their way to their breeding-places in the Arctic 
regions, were always so high that they looked like 
strings of moving specks in the sky. They always 
fly in a certain order, the geese in single file, arranged 
like a great V, the two sides of it stretching far away 
from each other, but the birds which form the figure 



74 The Flight of Birds. 

never losing their respective places. Some of the 
ducks, on the other hand, kept in wedge-shaped 
phalanxes, like the order in which Hannibal dis- 
posed his troops at the Battle of Cannae. Whether 
they fly so high to see better, or because the air is 
thinner and gives them less resistance, or to be out 
of the reach of danger, or to keep from any tempta- 
tion to alight and loiter on their way, it would be hard 
to tell, but with all the help which their height can 
give them, it has always been a great wonder to me 
how they knew the road to take. There must 
surely be some senses in such creatures of which we 
do not know, or those they have must be very much 
more acute than ours. How does a bee find its way 
home for miles ? And how does the little humming- 
bird — of which I shall speak more hereafter — thread 
its way, in its swift arrowy flight, from Canada to 
the far South, and back again, each year ? I am afraid 
we must all confess that we cannot tell. Our know- 
ledge, of which we are sometimes so proud, is a very 
poor affair after all. 



75 



CHAPTEE V. 

Some family changes — Amusements — Cow-hunting — Our 
M side- line" — The bush — Adventures with rattlesnakes — 
Gaiter-snakes — A frog's flight for life — Black squirrels. 

I have talked so long about the farm, and the beasts, 
and birds, that I had almost forgotten to speak of 
some changes which took place in our family in the 
first summer of our settlement. My eldest sister 
had, it seems, found time in Toronto to get in love, 
in spite of having to be mistress of such a household, 
and, of course, nothing could keep her past the week 
fixed for her marriage, which was to take place about 
two months after her getting to the Eiver. She 
must needs, when the time drew near, get back to 
her beloved, and had to look out her share of the 
furniture, &c, to take with her, or rather to send 
off before. My eldest brother, Andrew, also, had 
cast many wry looks at the thick logs, and at 
his blistered hands, and had groaned through every 
very hot day, maintaining that there would soon 
be nothing left of him but the bones. " Melting 
moments, girls," he would say to my sisters; u melt- 
ing moments, as the sailor said under the line. I 
can't stand this ; I shall go back to England." So 



76 Some Family Changes. 

he and my eldest sister made it up that he should 

take her, and such of her chattels as were not sent 

on before, to Toronto, and should leave us under the 

charge of Robert. When the day came, we all went 

down to the wharf with them, and, after a rather 

sorrowful parting, heard in due time of the marriage 

of the one, and, a good while afterwards — for there 

were no steamers in those days across the Atlantic — 

of the safe return of the other to England. This 

was the first break up of our household in America ; 

and it left us for a time lonely enough, though 

there were still so many of us together. We didn't 

care much for my sister's leaving, for she would 

still be within reach, but it was quite likely we 

should never see Andrew again. I have always 

thought it was a very touching thing that those who 

had grown up together should be separated, after a 

few years, perhaps never to meet again. My 

brother Robert made a very tender allusion to this 

at worship that night, and moved us all by praying 

that we might all of us lead such Christian lives, 

through God's grace, that we might meet again in the 

Great Hereafter, if not in our earthly pilgrimage. He 

wound up the service by repeating in his very striking 

way — for he recited beautifully — Burns' touching 

words : — 

" And when, at last, we reach that coast, 
O'er life's rough ocean driven, 
May we rejoice, no wanderer lost ; 
A family in Heaven." 



Amusements. 7 7 

After our wheat had been sown we had time to 
take a little leisure, and what with fishing at the end 
of the long wharf by day, and in the canoe, by torch- 
light, in the evenings, or strolling through the woods 
with our guns or rifles, or practising with the latter 
at a rough target made by cutting a broad slice off 
a tree, from which we dug oijt the bullets again to 
save the lead, the autumn passed very pleasantly. Of 
course it was not all play. There was plenty more 
forest to be cleared, and we kept at that pretty 
steadily, though a half-holiday or a whole one did 
not seem out of the way to us. I, as the youngest, 
had for my morning and evening's task to go to the 
woods and bring home the cows to be milked, and at 
times, the oxen, when we wanted them for some kind 
of work. The latter were left in the woods for days 
together, when we had nothing for them to do, and 
when we did bring them in, we always gave them 
a little salt at the barn-door to try to get them into 
the habit of returning of their own accord. Cattle 
and horses in Canada all need to be often indulged 
with this luxury : the distance from the sea leaving 
hardly any of it in the air, or in the grass and other 
vegetation. It was sometimes a pleasure to go cow- 
hunting, as we called it, but sometimes quite the 
reverse. I used to set out, with the dogs for company, 
straight up the blazed line at the side of our lot. I 
mean, up a line along which the trees had been marked 
by slices cut out of their sides, to show the way to 



78 Cow-hunting. 

the lots at the back of ours. It was all open for a 
little way back, for the post road passed up from the 
bank of the river along the side of our farm, for five 
or six acres, and then turned at a right angle parallel 
with the river again, and there was a piece of the 
side line cleared for some distance beyond the turn. 
After this piece of civilization had been passed, how- 
ever, nature had it all to herself. The first twelve 
or fifteen acres lay fine arid high, and could almost 
always be got over easily, but the ground dropped 
down at that distance to the edge of a little stream, 
and rose on the other side, to stretch away in a dead 
level, for I know not how many miles. The stream- 
let, which was sometimes much swollen after thaws 
or rains, was crossed by a rough sort of bridge 
formed of the cuts of young trees which rested 
on stouter supports of the same kind, stretching 
from bank to bank. One of the freshets, however, 
for a time destroyed this easy communication, and 
left us no way of crossing till it was repaired, but 
either by fording, or by venturing over the trunk of 
a tree, which was felled so as to reach across the 
gap and make an apology for a bridge. It used at 
first to be a dreadful job to get over this primitive 
pathway, but I got so expert that I could run over 
it easily and safely enough. The dogs, however, 
generally preferred the water, unless when it was 
deep. Then there were pieces of swampy land, 
farther back, over which a string of felled trees, one 



Cow-hunting. 79 

beyond the other, offered, again, the only passage. 
These were the worst to cross, for the wet had gene- 
rally taken off the bark, and they often bent almost 
into the water with your weight. One day, when I 
was making my best attempt at getting over one of 
these safely, an old settler on a lot two miles back 
made his appearance at the farther side. 

" Bad roads, Mr. Brown," said I, accosting him, 
for every one speaks to every one else in such a place 
as that. 

" Yes, Mr. Stanley — bad roads, indeed; but it's 
nothing to have only to walk out and in. What do 
you think it must have been when I had to bring my 
furniture back on a sleigh in summer-time ? We 
used waggons on the dry places, and then got sleighs 
for the swamps; and, Mr. Stanley, do you know, 
I'm sure two or three times you hardly saw more of 
the oxen for a minute than just the horns. We had 
all to go through the water ourselves to get them to 
pull, and even then they stuck fast with our load, 
and we had to take it off and carry it on our backs 
the best way we could. You don't know anything 
about it, Mr. Stanley. I had to carry a chest of 
drawers on my shoulders through all this water, and 
every bit that we ate for a whole year, till we got a 
crop, had to be brought from the front, the same way, 
over these logs." 

No doubt he spoke the truth, but, notwithstanding 
his gloomy recollections, it used to be grand fun to 



80 Cow-hunting. 

go back, except when I could not find the cows, or 
when they would not let themselves be driven home. 
The dogs would be off after a squirrel every little 
while, though they never could catch one, or they 
would splash into the water with a thousand gambols 
to refresh themselves from the heat, and get quit of 
the mosquitoes. Then there can be nothing more 
beautiful than the woods themselves, when the leaves 
are in all their bravery, and the ground is varied by 
a thousand forms of verdure, wherever an opening 
lets in the sun. The trees are not broad and um- 
brageous like those in the parks of England. Their 
being crowded together makes them grow far higher 
before the branches begin, so that you have great 
high trunks on every side, like innumerable pillars 
in some vast cathedral, and a high open roof of green, 
far over head, the white and blue of the sky filling 
up the openings in the fretwork of the leaves. There 
is always more or less undergrowth to heighten the 
beauty of the scene, but not enough, except in 
swampy places, to obscure the view, which is only 
closed in the distance by the closer and closer gather- 
ing of the trees as they recede. The thickness of 
some of these monarchs of the forest, the fine shape 
of others, and the vast height of nearly all ; the ex- 
haustless charms of the great canopy of mingled 
leaves and branches, and sky, and cloud above ; the 
picturesque vistas in the openings here and there 
around ; the endless variety of shade and form in the 



The Bush. 81 

young trees springing up at intervals ; the flowers in 
one spot, the rough fretting of fallen and mouldering 
trees, bright with every tint of fungus, or red with 
decay, or decked with mosses and lichens, in others, 
and the graceful outline of broad beds of fern, contrast- 
ing with the many- coloured carpet of leaves — made 
it delightful to stroll along. The silence that reigns 
heightens the pleasure and adds a calm solemnity. 
The stroke of an axe can be heard for miles, and so 
may the sound of a cow-bell, as I have sometimes 
found to my sorrow. But it was only when the cows 
or oxen could be easily got that I was disposed to 
think of the poetry of the journey. They always 
kept together, and I knew the sound of our bell at 
any distance ; but sometimes I could not, by any 
listening, catch it, the wearer having perhaps lain 
down to chew the cud, and then, what a holloaing 
and getting up on fallen trees to look for them, and 
wandering till I was fairly tired. One of the oxen 
had for a time the honour of bearing the bell, but I 
found, after a while, that he added to my trouble in 
finding him and his friends, by his cunning, and we 
transferred it to one of the cows. The brute had a 
fixed dislike to going home, and had learned that the 
tinkle of the bell was a sure prelude to his being 
led off, to prevent which, he actually got shrewd 
enough to hold his head, while resting, in so still a 
way that he hardly made a sound. I have seen him, 
when I had at last hunted him up, looking sideways 

G 



82 Adventures with Rattlesnakes. 

at me with his great eyes, afraid for his life to stir 
his head lest the horrid clapper should proclaim his 
presence. When I did get them they were not 
always willing to be driven, and would set off with 
their heads and tails up, the oxen accompanying 
them, the bell making a hideous clangour, careering 
away over every impediment, straight into the woods, 
in, perhaps, the very opposite direction to that in 
which I wished to lead them. Then for a race to 
head them, round logs, over logs, through brush and 
below it, the dogs dashing on ahead, where they 
thought I was going, and looking back every minute, 
as if to wonder what I was about. It was sometimes 
the work of hours to get them home, and sometimes 
for days together we could not find them at all. 

There is little to fear from wild animals in the 
bush in Canada. The deer were too frightened to 
trouble us, and, though I have some stories to tell 
about bears and wolves, they were so seldom seen 
that they did not give us much alarm. But I was 
always afraid of the rattlesnakes, especially in the 
long grass that grew in some wet places. I never 
saw but one, however, and that was once, years after, 
when I was riding up a narrow road that had been 
cut through the woods. My horse was at a walk, 
when, suddenly, it made a great spring to one side, 
very nearly unseating me, and then stood looking at 
a low bush and trembling in every limb. The next 
moment I heard the horrible rattle, and my horse 



Adventures with Rattlesnakes. So 

commenced a set of leaps from one side to the 
other, backing all the while, and snorting wildly. I 
could not get off, and as little could I get my horse 
turned away, so great was his fear. Two men luckily 
came up just at this time, and at once saw the cause 
of the poor brute's alarm, which was soon ended by 
one of them making a dash at the snake with a thick 
stick, and breaking its neck at a blow. Henry told 
us once that he was chased by one which he had dis- 
turbed, and I can easily credit it, for I have seen 
smaller snakes get very infuriated, and if one was 
alarmed, as in Henry's case, it might readily glide 
after him for some distance. However, it fared 
badly in the end, for a stick ended its days abruptly. 
I was told one story that I believe is true, though 
ridiculous enough. A good man, busy mowing in 
his field, in the summer costume of hat, shirt, and 
boots, found himself, to his horror, face to face with 
a rattlesnake, which, on his instantly throwing down 
his scythe and turning to flee, sprang at his tails and 
fixed its fangs in them inextricably. The next 
spring — the cold body of the snake struck against 
his legs, making him certain he had been bitten. He 
was a full mile from his house, but despair added 
strength and speed. Away he flew — over logs, fences, 
everything — the snake dashing against him with every 
jump, till he reached his home, into which he 
rushed, shouting, " The snake, the snake ! I'm 
bitten, I'm bitten !" Of course they were all alarmed 
g2 



84 Adventures with Rattlesnakes. 

enough, but when they came to examine, the terror 
proved to be the whole of the injury suffered, the 
snake's body having been knocked to pieces on the 
way, the head, only, remaining fixed in the spot at 
which it had originally sprung. David and Henry 
were one day at work in our field, where there were 
some bushes close to a stump near the fence. The 
two were near each other when the former saw a 
number of young rattlesnakes at Henry's side, and, 
as a good joke, for we laughed at the danger, it 
seemed so slight, cried out — " Henry ! Henry ! look 
at the rattlesnakes !" at the same time mounting the 
fence to the highest rail to enjoy Henry's panic. But 
the young ones were not disposed to trouble any one, 
so that he instantly saw that he had nothing to fear ; 
whereas, on looking towards David, there was quite 
enough to turn the laugh the other way. " Look 
at your feet, David!" followed in an instant, and you 
may easily imagine how quickly the latter was down 
the outer side of the fence, and away to a safe dis- 
tance, when, on doing as he was told, he saw the 
mother of the brood poised below him for a spring, 
which, but for Henry, she would have made the next 
moment. 

Pigs have a wonderful power of killing snakes, 
their hungry stomachs tempting them to the attack 
for the sake of eating their bodies. I don't know 
that they ever set on rattlesnakes, but a friend of mine 
saw one with the body of a great black snake, the 



.Garter Snakes. 85 

thickness of his wrist, and four or five feet Ions, 
lying over its back, Monsieur Pig converting the 
whole into pork as fast as he could, by vigorously- 
swallowing joint after joint. 

The garter- snake is the only creature of its kind 
which is very common in Canada, and very beautiful 
and harmless it is. But it is never seen without 
getting killed, unless it beat a very speedy retreat 
into some log or pile of stones, or other shelter. 
The influence of the story of the Fall in the Garden 
of Eden is fatal to the whole tribe of snakes, against 
every individual of which a merciless crusade is 
waged the moment one is seen. The garter-snake 
feeds on frogs and other small creatures, as I chanced 
to see one day when walking up the road. In a 
broad bed of what they call tobacco-weed, a chase 
for life or death was being made between a poor frog 
and one of these snakes. The frog evidently knew it 
was in danger, for you never saw such leaps as it 
would take to get away from its enemy, falling into 
the weeds, after each, so as to be hidden for a time, 
if it had only been able to keep so. But the snake 
would raise itself up on a slight coil of its tail, and 
from that height search every place with its bright 
wicked eyes for his prey, and presently glide off 
towards where the poor frog lay panting. Then for 
another leap, and another poising, to scan the field. 
I don't know how it ended, for I had watched them 
till they were a good way off. How the snake would 



86 Black Squirrels. 

ever swallow it, if it caught it, is hard to imagine, 
for certainly it was at least three times as thick as 
itself. But we know that snakes can do wonderful 
things in that way. Why, the cobra di capello, at the 
Zoological Gardens, swallowed a great railway rug 
some time ago, and managed to get it up again when 
it found it could make nothing of it. It is a mercy 
our jaws do not distend in such a fashion, for we 
would look very horrible if we were in the habit of 
swallowing two large loaves at a time, or of taking 
our soup with a spoon a foot broad, which would, 
however, be no worse than a garter- snake swallowing 
a frog whole. It is amazing how fierce some of the 
small snakes are. I have seen one of six or eight 
inches in length dart at a walking-stick by which it 
had been disturbed, with a force so great as to be 
felt in your hand at the farther end. Homer, in the 
Iliad, says that Menelaus was as brave as a fly, 
which, though so small, darts once and again in a 
man's face, and will not be driven away ; but he 
might have had an additional comparison for his hero 
if he had seen a snake no thicker than a pencil 
charging at a thick stick held in a man's hand. 

We had very pleasant recreation now and then, 
hunting black squirrels, which were capital eating. 
They are much larger than either the grey or the 
red ones, and taste very much like rabbits, from 
which, indeed, it would be hard to distinguish them 
when they are on the table. Both they and the 



Black Squirrels. 87 

grey squirrel are very common, and are sometimes 
great pests to the farmer, making sad havoc with his 
Indian corn while green, and with the young wheat. 
In Pennsylvania this at one time came to such a 
pitch that a law was passed, offering threepence 
a-head for every one destroyed, which resulted, in 
1749, in 8000 1, being paid in one year as head- 
money for those killed. Their great numbers some- 
times dev elope strange instincts, very different from 
those we might expect. From scarcity of food, or 
some other unknown cause, all the squirrels in a 
large district will at times take it into their heads to 
make a regular migration to some other region. 
Scattered bodies are said to gather from distant 
points, and marshal themselves into one great host, 
which then sets out on its chosen march, allowing 
nothing whatever — be it mountain or river — to stop 
them. We ourselves had proof enough that nothing 
in the shape of water, short of a lake, could do 
it. Our neighbours agreed in telling us that, a 
few years before we came, it had been a bad summer 
for nuts, and that the squirrels of all shades had 
evidently seen the perils of the approaching winter, 
and made up their minds to emigrate to more 
favoured lands. Whether they held meetings on 
the subject, and discussed the policy to be pursued, 
was not known ; but it is certain that squirreldom 
at large decided on a united course of action. 
Having come to this determination, they gathered, 



88 Black Squirrels. 

it appears, in immense numbers, in the trees at the 
water's edge, where the river was at least a mile 
broad, and had a current of about two miles an 
hour, and, without hesitation, launched off in thou- 
sands on the stream, straight for the other side. 
Whether they all could swim so far, no one, of 
course, could tell; but vast numbers reached the 
southern shore, and made for the woods, to seek 
there the winter supplies which had been deficient in 
the district they had left. How strange for little 
creatures like them to contrive and carry out an 
organized movement, which looked as complete and 
deliberate as the migration of as many human 
beings ! What led them to go to the south rather 
than to the north ? There were no woods in sight 
on the southern side, though there were forests 
enough in the interior. I think we can only come 
to the conclusion, which cannot be easily confuted, 
that the lower creatures have some faculties of which 
we have no idea whatever. 

The black squirrels are very hardy. You may 
see them in the woods, even in the middle of winter, 
when their red or grey brethren, and the little ground 
squirrels, are not to be seen. On bright days, how- 
ever, even these more delicate creatures venture out, 
to see what the world is like, after their long seclu- 
sion in their holes in the trees. They must gather a 
large amount of food in the summer and autumn to 
be sufficient to keep them through the long months 



Black Squirrels. 89 

of cold and frost, and their diligence in getting ready- 
in time for the season when their food is buried out 
of their reach, is a capital example to us. They 
carry things from great distances to their nests, if 
food be rather scarce, or if they find any delicacy 
worth laying up for a treat in winter. When the 
wheat is ripe they come out in great numbers to get 
a share of the ears, and run off with as many as 
they can manage to steal. 



90 



CHAPTER VI. 

Spearing fish — Ancient British canoes — Indian ones — A 
bargain with an Indian — Henry's cold bath — Canadian 
thunderstorms — Poor Yorick's death — Our glorious au- 
tumns — The change of the leaf — Sunsets — Indian summer 
— The fall rains and the roads — The first snow — Canadian 
cold — A winter landscape — ' ' Ice-storms" — Snow crystals 
— The minute perfection of God's works — Deer- shooting — ■ 
David's misfortune — Useless cruelty — Shedding of the 
stag's horns. 

Spearing fish by moonlight was a great amusement 
with us in the beautiful autumn evenings. We had 
bought a canoe from an Indian for eight dollars, I 
think — that is, about thirty-two shillings, and it 
formed our boat on these occasions. Perhaps, how- 
ever, before speaking of our adventures on the 
waters, I had better describe this new purchase, and 
the scene of its transference to our hands, which was 
as curious as itself. It was made out of a long cut 
of a black walnut-tree, which had been burned 
and hollowed to the required depth, breadth, and 
length, and had then been shaped, outside, by an axe, 
to the model proposed. They are generally quite 
light, but ours was, to other canoes, what a ship's 
boat is to a skiff. It must have taken a long time 
to finish, but time is of no value to an Indian. 



Spearing Fis7i. 9 1 

Indeed, the longer anything takes him the better, as 
it gives him at least something to do, when, otherwise, 
he would likely have relapsed into total idleness. 
There is no keel on canoes, but only a round bottom, 
and the ends are sharp and both alike. Of course, 
such a vessel has a natural facility at rolling, and 
needs only the slightest aid on your part to turn in 
the water like a log, so that safety depends very 
much on your being steady, and not leaning, under 
any circumstances, to either side. In some parts of 
Canada they are made of the tough, light bark of the 
birch tree, which is sewed into a long sheet, and 
stretched over a light but strong framework of the 
desired shape. Before using it, the bark is tho- 
roughly soaked in oil to make it waterproof. When 
finished, such a canoe is really elegant, rising high 
into a wide circular form at the ends, which are 
made very sharp to cut the water easily. I have 
seen them beautifully finished, with differently 
coloured porcupine quills worked into the edges, and 
fanciful designs at the ends. They are so light that 
one which will hold twenty men weighs only a few 
hundred- weight, and can be easily carried by three 
or four men. Then, they are so elastic that they 
yield to blows which would break a canoe of wood. 
When they do get an injury, it is amusing to see 
how easily they are mended. You can darn them 
like a stocking, or patch them like a shoe, using 
wire, however, instead of thread, and making all 



9£ Spearing Fis/i. 

tight by a coating of the resinous matter got from 
the red pine. The ingenuity that invented such a 
refinement on the common canoe, as is shown in the 
birch-bark one, is enough to redeem the character of 
the Indian from the low estimate of his mechanical 
powers sometimes heard. If we wonder at the con- 
trast between such vessels at their best and our 
beautiful boats and ships, we must remember that our 
ancestors could boast of nothing better than these 
Indians make to-day. In both Scotland and Eng- 
land, canoes have been often found in draining a lake, 
or in excavations near streams, or near the sea-shore, 
where bogs or other causes have covered the ancient 
surface of the ground. One was discovered some years 
since at the foot of the Ochill hills, many feet under 
a bog, and not very far from it there was found the 
skeleton of a small whale, with the head of a harpoon 
sticking in its backbone. Others, found elsewhere, are 
preserved in various public and private museums. 
It is striking to think from such discoveries as these, 
and from what we know of the boats of savage 
nations generally over the world, how nearly men of 
all ages when placed in the same position, when 
they are at similar stages of civilization, resemble 
each other in their thoughts and contrivances to 
meet the common wants of life. All over the world 
hollow trees have been used for the first steps of 
navigation, and the birch-bark canoe still finds a 
representative in the coracle which the Welsh fisher- 



Spearing Fish. 93 

man carries home on his back after using it, as his 
ancestors have done for generation after generation, 
while the Greenlander goes to sea in his light kaiack 
of seal-skin, as the polished inhabitant of Babylon, 
as Herodotus tells us, used to float his goods down 
the Great Eiver in round boats made of skins 
stretched on a frame of wicker-work. 

Instead of oars, the canoe is propelled by paddles^ 
which are short oars, with a broader blade. They 
are held in both hands, so that a single person has 
only one to work instead of having one in each hand, 
as with oars, when alone in a boat. An Indian in a 
canoe, if by himself, sits at the end, and strikes his 
paddle into the water at each side alternately, every 
now and then putting it out behind as a rudder, to 
turn himself in any particular direction. The one 
we bought was, as I have said, far too heavy for 
comfortable use, and was sold to us, I believe, for 
that reason. It was worse to paddle it empty than 
to paddle a proper one full of people — at least we 
came to think so ; but we knew no better at first than 
to like it for its massiveness, never thinking of the 
weight we should have to push through the water. 
The price, however, was not very great, though 
more than would have got us a right one, had we 
known enough. The Indian who sold it to us 
paddled up with it, with his wife in it with him, one 
morning, his dress being a dirty printed calico 
shirt, and a pair of cloth leggings ; her's, the never- 



94 Spearing Fish. 

failing blanket, and leggings, like those of her 
husband. They were both rather elderly, and by 
no means attractive in appearance. Robert and the 
rest of us happened to be near the fence at the river 
side at the time; and as the Indian came up, he 
saluted him, as is usual, with the words, " Bo' jour," 
a corruption of the phrase, " Bon jour," indicating 
curiously the extent of the old French dominion in 
America — every Indian, in any part, understanding, 
or, at least, acknowledging, it. A grunt on the part 
of our visitor conveyed his return of the courtesy, 
and was presently followed by, " C'noo, sell, good — 
you buy?" Eobert, thus addressed, willingly 
enough entered into temptation, having determined, 
some time before, to buy one. Like everyone else 
in Canada, he seemed naturally to think that bad 
English makes good Indian, and pursued the 
dialogue somewhat as follows: — Eobert — "Good 
c'noo?" Indian, with a grunt, "Good," making 
sundry signs with his hands, to show how it skimmed 
the water, and how easily it could be steered, both 
qualities being most sadly deficient, as he must 
have known. Eobert — "What for you ask?" 
Indian, holding up eight fingers, and nodding to- 
wards them, "dollar," making, immediately after, an 
imitation of smoking, to stand for an additional value 
in tobacco. Eobert — "Why you sell?" Indian — 
No answer, but a grunt, which might either hide a 
wish to decline a difficult question, by pretending 



Spearing Fish. 95 

ignorance, or anything else we like to suppose. Then 
followed more dumb -show, to let us know what a 
treasure he was parting with. My brother found it 
hopeless to get any information from him, nothing 
but grunts and an odd word or two of English fol- 
lowing a number of inquiries. After a time the 
bargain was struck, and having received the money 
and the tobacco, he and his spouse departed, laugh- 
ing in their sleeve, I dare say, at their success in 
getting a canoe well sold which needed two or three 
men to propel it at a reasonable rate. 

It was with this affair we used to go out on our 
spearing expeditions. A cresset, like those used in 
old times to hold watchmen's lights, and a spear 
with three prongs and a long handle, were all the 
apparatus required. The cresset was fixed in the 
bows of the canoe, and a knot of pitch-pine kindled 
in it, threw a bright light over and through the 
water. Only very still nights would do, for if there 
was any ripple the fish could not be seen. When it 
was perfectly calm we filled our cresset, and setting 
it a-fire, one of us would take his place near the 
light, spear in hand, standing ready to use it ; and 
another seated himself at the stern with a paddle, 
and, with the least possible noise, pushed off along 
the shallow edge of the river. The fish could be 
seen a number of feet down, resting on the bottom ; 
but in very deep water the spear could not get down 
quickly enough, while the position of the fish itself 



96 Spearing Fish. 

was changed so much by the refraction of the light, 
that it was very hard to hit it even if we were not 
too slow. The stillness of the nights — the beauty of 
the shining skies — the delicious mildness of the 
autumnal evenings — the sleeping smoothness of the 
great river — the play of light and shade from our 
fire — the white sand of the bottom, with the forms of 
the fish seen on it as if through coloured crystal — 
and the excitement of darting at them every few 
yards, made the whole delightful. At first we 
always missed, by miscalculating the position of our 
intended booty ; but, after going out a few times 
with John Courtenay, a neighbour, and noticing how 
much he allowed for the difference between the real 
and the apparent spot for which to aim, we got the 
secret of the art, and gradually managed to become 
pretty good marksmen. There was an island in the 
river, at the upper end of which a long tongue of 
shallow bottom reached up the stream, and on this 
we found the best sport: black bass, pike, herrings, 
white-fish, cat-fish, sun-fish, and I don't know what 
else, used to fall victims on this our best preserve. 
I liked almost as well to paddle as to stand in the 
bows to spear the fish, for watching the spearsman 
and looking down at the fish kept you in a flash of 
pleasant excitement all the time. Not a word was 
spoken in the canoe, but I used to think words 
enough. " There's a great sun-fish at the right 
hand, let me steer for it;" and silently the paddle 



Henry's Cold Bath. 97 

would more us towards it, my brother motioning me 
with his hand either to hold back or turn more this 
way, or that, as seemed necessary. " I wonder if 
he'll get him!" would rise in my mind, as the spear 
was slowly poised. " Will he dart off?" " He 
moves a little — ah ! there's a great pike ; make a dart 
at him — whew, he's gone!" and, sure enough, only 
the bare ground was visible. Perhaps the next was 
a white-fish, and in a moment a successful throw 
would transfix it, and then, the next, it would be in 
the bottom of the canoe. But it was not always 
plain sailing with us, for Henry was so fierce in his 
thrusts at first, that, one night, when he made sure of 
getting a fine bass he saw, he overbalanced himself 
with a jerk, and went in along with the spear, head 
over heels. The water was not deep enough to do 
him any harm, but you may be sure we did not fish 
any more that night. Picking himself up, the un- 
fortunate wight vented his indignation on the poor 
fish, which, by most extraordinary logic, he blamed 
for his calamity. I couldn't for the world help 
laughing; nor could Henry himself, when he had 
got a little over his first feelings of astonishment and 
mortification. 

The quantity of fish that some can get in a night's 
spearing is often wonderful. I have watched Cour- 
tenay, on a night when fish were plenty, lifting them 
from the water almost every minute, though very 
few were larger than herrings, and he had only their 
H 



98 Canadian Thunderstorms. 

backs at which to aim. In some parts of Canada 
there was higher game than in our waters — the 
salmon-trout, which is often as large as our salmon, 
and the " maskelonge," a corruption of the French 
words " masque' 7 and " longue," a kind of pike 
with a projecting snout, whence its name — offering 
a prize of which we could not boast. It must 
be hard work to get such prey out of the water, but 
the harder it is the more exciting is the sport for 
those who are strong enough. The Indians in some 
districts live to a great extent on the fish they get in 
this way. 

I had almost forgotten to speak of the thunder 
and lightning which broke on the sultriness of our 
hottest summer weather. Eain is much less fre- 
quent in Canada than in Britain, but when it does 
come, it often comes in earnest. It used to rebound 
from the ground for inches, and a very few minutes 
were sufficient to make small torrents run down 
every slope in the ground. When we afterwards 
had a garden in front of the house, we found it was 
almost impossible to keep the soil on it from the 
violence of the rains. Indeed, we gave up the at- 
tempt on finding everything we tried fail, and sowed 
it all with grass, to the great delight of the calves, 
to whom it was made over as a nursery. There is 
music, no doubt, in the sound of rain, both in the 
light patter of a summer shower, and in the big 
drops that dance on the ground; but there are dif- 



Canadian Thunderstorms. 99 

ferences in this as in other kinds. I have stood 
sometimes below the green branches in the woods 
when a thin cloud was dropping its wealth on them, 
and have been charmed by the murmur. But the 
heavy rain that came most frequently in the hot 
weather, falling as if through some vast cullender, 
was more solemn, and filled you with something like 
awe. It was often accompanied by thunder and 
lightning, such as those who live in cooler climates 
seldom hear or see. The amount of the electricity 
in the atmosphere of any country depends very much 
on the heat of the weather. Captain Grahame, who 
had commanded a frigate on the East India station, 
told me once, when on a short visit, that, in the 
Straits of Malacca, he had to order the sails to be 
furled every day at one o'clock, a thunderstorm 
coming on regularly at that hour, accompanied with 
wind so terrible that the canvas of the ship would 
often have been torn into ribbons, and knotted into 
hard lumps, if he had not done so. Thunderstorms 
are not so exact nor so frequent in Canada, but they 
came too often in some years for my taste. I was 
startled out of my sleep one night by a peal that 
must have burst within a few yards of the house, 
the noise exceeding anything I ever heard before or 
since. You don't know what thunder is till a cloud 
is fired that way at your ear. Our poor dog Yo- 
rick, which we had brought from England with us, 
was so terrified at the violence of the storms that 

Lof h2 



100 Canadian Thunderstorms. 

broke over us once and again, that he used to jump 
in through any open window, if the door were shut, 
and hide himself under the bed till all was quiet. 
He lost his life at last, poor brute, through his ter- 
ror at thunder, for one day when it had come on, 
the windows and doors happening to be closed, he 
rushed into the woods in his mortal fear, and coming 
on the shanty of a settler, flew in and secreted him- 
self below his accustomed shelter, the bed. The 
owner of the house, not knowing the facts of the 
case, naturally enough took it for granted that the 
dog was mad, and forthwith put an end to his 
troubles by shooting him. It was a great grief to us 
all to lose so kind and intelligent a creature, but we 
could hardly blame his destroyer. 

There is a wonderful sublimity sometimes in the 
darkness and solemn hush of nature that goes before 
one of these storms. It seems as if the pulse of all 
things were stopped. The leaves tremble, though 
there is not a breath of wind ; the birds either hide 
in the forest, or fly low, in terror ; the waters look 
black, and are ruffled over all their surface. It 
seems as if all things around knew of the impending 
terrors. I never was more awed in my life, I think, 
than at the sight of the heavens and the accompany- 
ing suspense of nature one afternoon, in the first 
summer we were on the river. The tempest had 
not burst, but it lay in the bosom of portentous 
clouds, of a strange, unearthly look and colour, that 



Canadian Thunderstorms. 101 

came down to within a very short distance of the 
earth. Not a sound broke the awful silence ; the 
wind, as well as all things else, was still, and yet the 
storm-clouds moved steadily to the south, apparently 
only a very few yards higher than the trees. The 
darkness was like that of an eclipse, and no one 
could have said at what instant the prison of the 
lightnings and thunders would rend above him and 
envelope him in its horrors. I could not, dared not 
stir, but stood where I was till the great grey masses, 
through which it seemed as if I could see the shim- 
mer of the aerial fires, had sailed slowly over to the 
other side of the river, and the light, in part, 
returned. 

The lightning used to leave curious traces of its 
visits in its effects on isolated trees all round. There 
was a huge pine in a field at the back of the house 
that had been its sport more than once. The great 
top had been torn off, and the trunk was split into 
ribbons, which hung far down the sides. Many 
others which I have seen in different parts had been 
ploughed into deep furrows almost from top to 
bottom. The telegraph-posts, since they have been 
erected, have been an especial attraction. I have 
seen fully a dozen of them in one long stretch split 
up, and torn spirally, through their whole length, 
by a flash which had struck the wire and run along 
it. That more people are not killed by it seems 
wonderful; yet there are many accidents of this 



102 Out Glorious Autumns. 

kind, after all. In the first or second year of our 
settlement a widow lady, living a few miles up the 
river, was found dead in her bed killed in a storm, 
and we afterwards heard of several others perishing 
in the same way. 

Hail often accompanies thunder and lightning in 
Canada, and the pieces are sometimes of a size that 
lets one sympathize with the Egyptians when Moses 
sent down a similar visitation on them. I remember 
reading of a hailstorm on the Black Sea in the midst 
of hot weather, the pieces in which were, some of 
them, a pound weight, threatening death to any one 
they might strike. I never saw them such a size in 
Canada, but used to think that it was bad enough to 
have them an inch and a half long. They must be 
formed by a cloud being whirled up, by some cur- 
rent in the air, to such a height as freezes its contents 
even in the heat of summer. 

The weather in the fall was delightful — better, I 
think, than in 'any other season of the year. Getting 
its name from the beginning of the fall of the leaves, 
this season lasts on till winter pushes it aside. Day 
after day was bright and almost cloudless, and the 
heat had passed into a balmy mildness, which made 
the very feeling of being alive a pleasure. Every- 
thing combined to make the landscape beautiful. The 
great resplendent river, flowing so softly it seemed 
scarce to move — its bosom a broad sheet of molten 
silver, on which clouds, and sky, and white sails, and 



Our Glorious Autumns. 103 

even the farther banks, with the houses, and fields, 
and woods, far back from the water, were painted as 
in a magic mirror — was a beautiful sight, of which 
we never tired ; like the swans in St. Mary's Loch, 
which, Wordsworth says, " float double, swan and 
shadow," we had ships in as well as on the waters; 
and not a branch, nor twig, nor leaf of the great trees, 
nor of the bushes, nor a touch in the open landscape, 
was awanting, as we paddled along the shores, or 
looked across. 

And what shall I say of the sunsets ? Milton 
says — 

" Now came still evening on, and twilight grey 
Had in her sober livery all things clad." 

But this would not do for some of those autumn days. 
The yellow light would fill earth, and air, and sky. 
The trees, seen between you and the setting sun, were 
shining amber, in trunk, and branch, and leaf; and 
the windows of neighbours' houses were flaming 
gold ; while here and there branches on which the 
sun shone at a different angle seemed light itself; 
and in the distance the smoke rose purple, till, while 
you gazed, the whole vision faded, and faded, through 
every shade of green and violet, into the dark-blue 
of the stars. 

By the beginning of September the first frosts had 
touched the trees, and the change of colour in the 
leaves at once set in. It is only when this has taken 
place that the forests put on their greatest beauty; 



10-i The Change of the Leaf. 

though, indeed, a feeling of sadness was always asso- 
ciated with these autumnal splendours, connected as 
they are, like the last colours of the dolphin, with 
thoughts of decay and death. With each day, after 
the change had commenced, the beauty increased. 
Each kind of tree — the oak, the elm, the beech, the 
ash, the birch, the walnut, and, above all, the maple 
— had its own hue, and every hue was lovely. Then 
there were the solemn pines, and tamaracks, and ce- 
dars, setting off the charms of their gayer brethren 
by their sober green, which at a distance looked al- 
most black. The maple-leaf, the first to colour, re- 
mained, throughout, the most beautiful, in its golden 
yellow and crimson. No wonder it has become to 
Canada what the shamrock is to Ireland, or the rose 
and the thistle, to England and Scotland. The woods 
look finest, I think, when the tints are just beginning, 
and green, yellow, and scarlet are mingled in every 
shade of transition. But what sheets of golden flame 
they became after a time ! Then every leaf had 
something of its own in which it differed from all 
others. Yonder, the colours blended together into 
pink of the brightest tint ; then came a dash of lilac 
and blue, and, away by itself, a clump rose, like an 
islet, of glowing red gold. Lofty trees, and humble 
undergrowth, and climbing creepers — all alike owned 
the magic influence, and decked the landscape with 
every tint that can be borrowed from the light, till 
the whole looked like the scenery of some fairy tale. 



Indian Summer. 105 

The sunsets, as the year deepened into winter, 
grew, I thought, if possible, more and more glorious. 
The light sank behind mountains of gold and purple, 
and shot up its splendours, from beyond, on every bar 
and fleck of cloud, to the zenith. Then came the slow 
advance of night, with the day retreating from before 
it to the glorious gates of the west, at first in a flush 
of crimson, then in a flood of amber, till at last, with 
a lingering farewell, it left us in paler and paler green. 
I have seen every tree turned into gold as I looked 
across, the river, as the evening fell. Milman speaks, 
in one of his poems, of the " golden air of heaven." 
Such sights as these sunsets make the image a 
reality, and almost involuntarily lead one, as he gazes 
on the wide glory that rests on all things, to think 
how beautiful the better world must be if this one 
be so lovely. 

The Indian summer came with the end of October 
and lasted about ten days, a good deal of rain having 
fallen just before. While it lasted, it was deliciously 
mild, like the finest April weather in England. A 
soft mist hung over the whole panorama round us, 
mellowing everything to a peculiar spiritual beauty. 
The sun rose, and travelled through the day, and set, 
behind a veil of haze, through which it showed like 
a great crate of glowing embers. As it rose, the haze 
reddened higher and higher up the sky, till, at noon, 
the heavens were like the hollow of a vast half- 
transparent rose, shutting out the blue. It was like 



106 Indian Summer. 

the dreamy days of Thomson's " Castle of Indolence/' 
where everything invited to repose. You could look 
at the sun at any hour, and yet the view around was 
not destroyed, but rather made more lovely. What 
the cause of this phenomenon may be I have never 
been able to find out. One writer suggests one thing, 
and another something else ; but it seems as if no- 
body knew the true reason of it. If I might venture 
a guess, I would say that perhaps it arises from the 
condensation of the vapours of the earth by the first 
frosts, while the summer and autumn heats are yet 
great enough in the soil to cause them to rise in 
abundance. 

Both before and after the Indian summer the first 
unmistakeable heralds of winter visited us, in the 
shape of morning hoar-frost, which melted away 
as the day advanced. It was wonderfully beau- 
tiful to look at it, in its effects on the infinitely- 
varied colours of the leaves which still clung to 
the trees. Its silver dust, powdered over the golden 
yellow of some, and the bright-red, or dark-brown, 
or green of others, the minutest outline of each pre- 
served, looked charming in the extreme. Then, not 
only the leaves, but the trunks, and branches, and 
lightest sprays, were crusted with the same snowy 
film, till, as far as the eye could reach, it seemed as 
if some magical transformation had happened in the 
night, and a mockery of nature had been moulded in 
white. But what shall I say of the scene when the 



The Fall Rains and the Roads. 107 

sun came up in the east, to have his look at it as well 
as we ? What rainbow tints of every possible shade ! 
what diamond sparkling of millions of crystals at 
once ! It was like the gardens of Aladdin, with the 
trees bending under their wealth of rubies, and 
sapphires, and all things precious. But the spectacle 
was as short-lived as it was lovely. By noon, the 
last trace was gone. 

The autumnal rains are of great value to the 
farmers and the country generally, by filling the 
wells and natural reservoirs, so as to secure a plen- 
tiful supply of water for winter, and thus they were 
welcome enough on this ground to most, though we, 
with the river at hand, could have very well done 
without them. But, in their effects on the roads, 
they were a cause of grief to all alike. Except near 
towns, the roads all through Canada were, in those 
days, what most of them are, even yet, only mud; 
and hence you may judge their state after long-con- 
tinued tropical rains. All I have said of our journey 
to the river in the early summer, might be repeated 
of each returning fall. Men came to the house every 
day or two to borrow an axe or an auger, to extem- 
porize some repair of their broken-down waggons or 
vehicles. One pitchy night I came upon two who were 
intensely busy, by the light of a lantern, mending a 
waggon, with the help of a saw, an auger, an axe, 
and a rope. Of course, I stopped to offer assistance, 
but I had come only in time to be too late, and was 



108 The Fall Rains and the Roads. 

answered that my help was not wanted. " All's right 
— there's no use making a fuss — Jim, take back 
them things where you got them, and let's go 
a-head." As to thanks for my offer, it would have 
been extravagant to expect them. They had cobbled 
their vehicle, and, on Jim's return, were off into the 
darkness as coolly as if nothing had happened. The 
dangers of the roads are a regular part of the calcu- 
lations of the back-country Canadians, to encounter 
which they carry an axe, a wrench, and a piece of 
rope, which are generally enough for the rude 
wheelwright surgery required. It is amusing to hear 
with what perfect indifference they treat misadven- 
tures which would totally disconcert an Old 
Countryman. I remember a man whom I met 
patching up his light waggon — which is the name for 
a four-wheeled gig — setting me laughing at his ac- 
count of his triumphs over all the accidents of travel. 
" I never was stopped yet," he went on to assure me. 
" Once I was in my buggy and the tire of one of the 
wheels came off without my noticing ; I ran back 
some miles to try if I could get it, but I couldn't 
find it. But I guess I never say die, so I took a rail 
and stuck it in below the lame corner, and I tell you 
we made the dust fly !" 

A little brick church had been built about two 
miles from us, sometime before we came to the river, 
but the mud was a sore hindrance to such of the con- 
gregation as could not come by water. Any attempt 



The Fall Rains and the Roads. ] 09 

at week-night meetings of any kind was, of course, 
out of the question. We were pretty nearly close pri- 
soners till the frost should come to relieve us. 

As in many other cases, however, this first step 
towards cure was almost worse than the disease. 
The frost often came in bitter fierceness for some 
time before any snow fell, and, then, who shall sing in 
sad enough strains the state of the roads ? Imagine 
mile after mile of mud, first poached into a long 
honeycomb by the oxen and horses, and cut into 
longitudinal holes by the wheels, then frozen, in this 
state, in a night, into stone. I once had to ride 
nearly sixty miles over such a set of pitfalls. My 
brother, Frederic, was with me, but he had slipped 
in the stable and sprained his shoulder so that I had 
almost to lift him into the saddle. He came with me 
to lead back my horse at the sixty miles' end, where 
the roads permitted the stage to run for my further 
journey. We were two days on the way, and such 
days. The thermometer was below zero, our breath 
froze on our eyelashes every minute, and the horses 
had long icicles at their noses, and yet we could only 
stumble on at a slow walk, the horses picking their 
steps with the greatest difficulty, and every now and 
then coming down almost on their knees. Sometimes 
we got so cold we had to get off and walk with the 
bridles on our arms ; and then there was the getting 
Frederic mounted again. I thought we should never 
get to the end of the first day's ride. It got dark 



110 The First Snoiv. 

long before we reached it, and we were afraid to sit 
any longer on the horses, so that we finished it by- 
groping in the pitchy darkness, as well as we could, 
for some miles. 

The first snow fell in November, and lay, that year, 
from that time until April. The climate has become 
much milder since, from the great extent of the 
clearings, I suppose, so that snow does not lie, now- 
a-days, as it did then, and does not begin for nearly 
a month later. I have often heard Canadians de- 
ploring the change in this respect, as, indeed, they 
well may in the rougher parts of the country, for the 
winter snow, by filling up the holes in the roads and 
freezing the wet places, as well as by its smooth 
surface, enables them to bring heavy loads of all 
kinds to market, from places which are wholly shut 
up at other seasons, if they had the leisure to employ 
in that way, at any other, which they have not. The 
snow is consequently as welcome in Canada as the 
summer is elsewhere, and a deficiency of it is a heavy 
loss. When we first settled, the quantity that fell 
was often very great, and as none melted, except 
during the periodical thaw in January, the accumu- 
lation became quite formidable by spring. It was 
never so bad, however, by any means, as at Quebec, 
where the houses have flights of steps up to the 
doors to let folks always get in and out through the 
winter, the doors being put at high snow-mark, if I 
may so speak. I have sometimes seen the stumps 



Canada in Winter, 111 

quite hidden and the fences dwarfed to a very Lilli- 
putian height; but, of late years, there have been 
some winters when there has hardly been enough to 
cover the ground, and the wheat has in many parts 
been killed, to a large extent, by the frost and thaws, 
which it cannot stand when uncovered. People in 
Britain often make great mistakes about the appear- 
ance of Canada in winter, thinking, as I remember 
we did, that we should have almost to get down to 
our houses through the snow for months together, 
The whole depth may often, now-a-days, in the 
open country, be measured by inches, though it still 
keeps up its old glory in the bush, and lies for 
months together, instead of melting off in a few days, 
as it very frequently does, round the towns and 
cities. I remember an account of the Canadian 
climate given by a very witty man, now dead, Dr. 
Dunlop, of Lake Huron, as the report sent home re- 
specting it by an Englishman to his friends, whom 
he informed, that for four months in the year you 
were up to the neck in mud ; for four more, you 
were either burned up by the heat or stung to death 
by mosquitoes, and, for the other four, if you 
managed to get your nose above the snow it was only 
to have it bitten off by the frost. All the evils thus 
arrayed are bad enough, but the writer's humour 
joined with his imagination in making an outrageous 
caricature when he spoke thus. A Frenchman, 
writing about England, would, perhaps, say as much 



112 Climate in America. 

against its climate, and, perhaps, with a nearer ap- 
proach to truth. I remember travelling with one in 
the railway from Wolverhampton to London on a 
very bad day in winter, whose opinion of the English 
climate was, " cleemate, it's no cleemate — it's only 
yellow fogue." Robert Southey, as true an English- 
man as ever lived, in the delightful letters published 
in his life, constantly abuses it in a most extraor- 
dinary way, and I suppose there are others who 
abuse that of every other country in which they 
chance to live. We can have nothing just as we 
would like it, and must always set the bright side 
over against the dark. For my part, I think that, 
though Canada has its charms at some seasons, and 
redeeming points in all, there is no place like dear 
Old England, in spite of its fogs and drizzle, and the 
colds they bring in their train. 

The question often rises respecting the climate in 
America, since it has grown so much milder in com- 
paratively few years, whether it will ever grow any- 
thing like our own in its range of cold and heat. 
That many countries have changed greatly within 
historical periods is certain. The climate of England, 
in the days of the Norman conquest, is thought by 
many to have been like that of Canada now. Horace 
hints at ice and snow being no strangers at Eome in 
the time of Augustus. Caesar led his army over the 
frozen Ehone; and, as to Germany, the description 
of its climate in Tacitus is fit to make one shiver. 



A Winter Landscape. 113 

But we have, unfortunately, an opportunity afforded 
us by the case of New England, of seeing that two 
hundred years' occupation of an American province, 
though it may lessen the quantity of snow, has no 
effect in tempering the severity of the cold in winter, 
or abating the heat in summer. Connecticut and 
Massachusetts are as cold as Canada, if not colder, 
and yet they are long-settled countries. The great 
icy continent to the north forbids the hope of Canada 
ever being, in any strict sense of the term, temperate. 
Even in the open prairies of Wisconsin and Iowa the 
blasts that sweep from the awful Arctic deserts are 
keen beyond the conception of those who never felt 
them. It is the fact of Britain being an island that 
has made the change in its case, the wind that blows 
over the sea being always much cooler in summer 
and warmer in winter than that which blows over 
land. 

I have spoken of the beautiful effect of the hoar- 
frost on the forest ; that of the snow is equally 
striking. It is wonderful how much manages to get 
itself heaped up on the broad branches of pines and 
cedars, and even on the bare limbs and twigs of 
other trees, making the landscape look most amaz- 
ingly wintry. But I don't think any one in Canada 
ever heard of such a quantity lodging on them as to 
make such an occurrence as Mrs. Mary Somerville 
quotes from some traveller in her " Physical Geo- 
graphy," where she tells us that the weight of it on 
I 



114 "Ice-storms." 

the broad fronds of the pine-trees is so great, that, 
when the wind rises and sways them to and fro, they 
often tumble against each other with such force as to 
overthrow great numbers, over large tracts of country. 
Such " ice-storms," as she calls them, I never heard 
of, nor did I ever meet with any one who did. In- 
deed, I rather think them impossible, from the mere 
fact that, though the force with which the first tree 
struck the second might be enough to throw it down, 
that of the second would be much weaker on a third, 
and thus the destruction would cease almost at once, 
instead of spreading far and wide. It must be some 
curious and incorrect version of the terrible tornadoes 
of summer which she has quoted. 

The snow itself used to give me constant pleasure 
in looking at it minutely. The beautiful shapes you 
see in the kaleidoscope are not more wonderful than 
those of the crystals of which it was made up. Stars, 
crosses, diamonds, and I know not what other shapes, 
as large almost as a shilling, shone round you in mil- 
lions when the sun sent his glittering light on them, 
except in very cold weather, for then the snow was only 
a dry powder. What a wonderful thing crystallization 
is ! If you think of it for a moment you will be amazed 
and awed, for it brings us as if face to face with 
God. How is it that the particles of snow range 
themselves in the most perfect forms, far more beau- 
tifully than any jeweller could make the most costly 
ornament ? There is never an error — never any- 



The Minute Perfection of God's Works. 115 

thing like a failure. Every atom of the dead, cold 
snow has a law impressed on it by God, by which it 
takes its proper place in building up those fairy 
spangles and jewels. Can anything be more ex- 
quisite than the crystals we find in the rocks ? Yet 
they are built up of atoms too small for even the 
microscope to detect, and are always exactly the 
same shape in the same kind of crystal. Philosophers 
think that the particles of each kind of crystal have 
each the perfect shape which the whole crystal 
assumes ; but if this be so, it makes the matter still 
more wonderful, for what shall we think of atoms, 
which no magnifying power can make visible, being 
carved and pierced and fretted into the most lovely 
shapes and patterns ? The great power of God is, I 
think, shown even more wonderfully in the smallest 
than in the largest of His works. The miracles of 
His creative skill are lavished almost more profusely 
on its least than on its larger productions, in animate 
as well as inanimate nature. The crystalline lens of 
a cod's eye — that is, the central hard part of it, 
which is very little larger than a pea, and is quite 
transparent — was long thought to have no sj)ecial 
wonders in its structure ; but the microscope has 
shown latterly that what appeared a mere piece of 
hard jelly is made up of five millions of distinct 
fibres, which are locked into each other by sixty-two 
thousand millions of teeth ! The grasshopper has 
two hundred and seventy horny teeth, set in rows in 
i 2 



116 The Minute Perfection of GocVs Works. 

its gizzard. A quarto volume lias been written on 
the anatomy of the earth-worm. At Bilin, in Hun- 
gary, there is a kind of stone which the great micro- 
scopist — or histologist, as the phrase sometimes is — 
Dr. Ehrenberg, has found to consist, nearly altogether, 
of creatures so small that three hundred and thirty 
millions of them make a piece only about twice the 
size of one of the dice used in backgammon, and yet 
each of these creatures is covered with a coat of mail 
delicately carved all over. What can be more lovely 
than the way in which the little feathers are laid on 
a butterfly's wing in such charming spots and bars of 
different colours ? I was looking some time since at 
a butterfly, which was of the most perfect azure blue 
when you looked down on it, but changed, when you 
saw it sideways, from one shade to another, and asked 
an entomologist how it was it had so many different 
tints, taking nearly every colour by turns. It is by 
the wonderful arrangement of the feathers, it seems, 
all this is done, the way in which they are laid on 
the wings being such as to break the rays of light 
into all these colours, according to the angle at which 
it is held to the eye. How wonderful the Being 
whose very smallest works are so perfect ! 

The snow in cold countries is very different in 
appearance at different times, as I have already in- 
timated. In comparatively mild weather it falls and 
lies in large soft flakes ; but in very cold weather it 
comes down almost in powder, and crackles below 



Deer-shooting. 117 

the feet at each step. The first showers seldom lie, the 
air being too warm as yet ; indeed, warm, comfort- 
able, days sometimes continue quite late. I re- 
member one November, when we were without fires, 
even in the middle of it, for some days together ; 
and in one extraordinary December, ploughs were 
actually going on Christmas-day; but this was as 
great a wonder as a Canadian frost would be in 
England. The first winter, enough fell in November 
to cover all the stumps in our field, which we did 
not see again for many weeks. The depth of the 
snow must thus have been at least a yard. In the 
woods, there was only a dead level of snow, instead of 
the rough flooring of fallen logs and broken branches. 
At first we could not stir through it for the depth, 
and had to make a path to the barn and to the road; 
but after a time a thaw came for a day or so, and 
some rain fell, and then the surface of the snow froze 
so firmly that even the oxen could walk over it in 
any direction without breaking through. 

The falling of the snow was a great time for the 
sportsmen of our household, for the deer were then most 
easily killed, the snow, while soft, showing their tracks, 
and also making them less timid, by forcing them to 
seek far and near for their food. Our rifles were, 
consequently, put in the best order as soon as the 
ground was white ; and each of us saw, in imagina- 
tion, whole herds of stags which he had brought 
down. Frederic, who had been left in Toronto, 



118 Deer-shooting. 

having suffered in health by the confinement of his 
office, had given it up, and had joined us some time 
before this, so that there were now five of us, besides 
my two sisters. We had three rifles and one gun, 
the rifle which David carried being an especially 
good one. But he was the poorest shot of us all, 
and Robert was too nervous to be sure of his aim ; 
but Henry was as cool before a stag as if it had been 
a rabbit. We were all in a state of great eagerness 
to commence, and had already looked out white 
clothes to put on over our ordinary suit, that we 
might be more like the snow; an extra supply of 
bullets and powder had been put into our pouches 
and flasks; and we had pestered every one, for 
weeks before, with every possible question as to what 
we were to do when we set out. On the eventful 
day, my brothers, Eobert, Henry, and David, got 
their rifles on their shoulders immediately after 
breakfast, and, having determined on taking each a 
different road, struck into the woods as each thought 
best. Shortly before dark we heard David's voice 
in the clearing, and, soon after, Eobert and Henry 
made their appearance. We were all out in a 
moment to see what they had got, but found them 
by no means disposed to be talkative about their 
adventures. We gradually learned, however, that 
they had all had a hard day's trudge through the 
rough wearisome woods, and that Eobert had had 
one good chance through the day, but was so flus- 



Deer shooting. 119 

tered when the deer sprang away through the trees 
that he could not raise his rifle in time, and had 
fired rather at where it had been than at where it 
was. David declared that he had walked forty 
miles, he supposed, and had seen nothing, though if 
he had only seen as much as a buck's tail he was 
sure he would have brought it down. Henry said 
that, do his best, he could not get near enough, what 
with the wind and the crackling of something or 
other. The fact was that they were raw hands, and 
needed some training, and had had to suffer the 
usual penalty of over- confidence, in reaping only 
disappointment. They felt this indeed so much, 
that it was some time before they would venture 
out alone again, preferring to accompany an old 
hunter who lived near us, until they had caught 
the art from him. Henry went out with an Indian, 
also, once, and thus gradually became able to manage 
by himself. He had the honour of killing the first 
deer, and setting up the trophy of its horns. He had 
walked for hours, thinking every little while he saw 
something through the trees, but had been disap- 
pointed, until, towards midday, when, at last, he came 
upon a couple browsing on the tender tips of the brush, 
at a long distance from him. Then came the hardest 
part of the day's work, to get within shot of them 
without letting them hear or smell him. He had to 
dodge from tree to tree, and would look out every 
minute to see if they were still there. Several times 



120 J)eer-shooting. 

the buck pricked its ears, and looked all round it, as 
if about to run off, making him almost hold his 
breath with anxiety lest it should do so ; but, at last, 
he got near enough, and taking a good aim at it from 
behind a tree, drew the trigger. A spring forward, 
and a visible momentary quiver, showed that he had 
hit it ; but it did not immediately fall, but ran off 
with the other through the woods. Instantly dashing 
out to the spot where it had stood, Henry followed 
its track, aided by the blood which every here and 
there lay on the snow. He thought at first he would 
come up with it in a few hundred yards, but it led 
him a long weary chase of nearly two miles before he 
got within sight of it. It had continued to run until 
weakness from the loss of blood had overpowered it, 
and it lay quite dead when Henry reached it. It was 
too great a weight for him to think of carrying home 
himself, so that he determined to cut it up, and hang 
the pieces on the neighbouring branches till he could 
come back next morning with some of us and fetch 
them. Copying the example of the old hunter 
whom he had made his model, he had taken a long 
knife and a small axe with him; and, after cutting 
the throat to let off what blood still remained, the 
creature being still warm, he was not very long of 
stripping it of its skin and hanging up its dismem- 
bered body, for preservation from the wolves 
through the night. This done, he made the best of 
his way home to tell us his achievement. 



Deer-shooting. 121 

Next day, we had a grand banquet on venison- 
steaks, fried with ham, and potatoes in abundance ; 
and a better dish I think I never tasted. Venison 
pie, and soup, for days after, furnished quite a treat in 
the house. 

A few days after this, while the winter was hardly 
as yet fairly begun, David and Henry had gone out 
to their work on the edge of the woods, when a deer, 
feeding close to them, lifted up its head, and, looking 
at them, turned slowly away. They were back to 
the house in a moment for their rifles, and sallied 
forth after it, following its track to the edge of the 
creek on our lot, where it had evidently crossed on 
the ice. David reached the bank first ; and, naturally 
enough, thinking that ice which bore up a large deer 
would bear him up, stepped on it to continue the 
pursuit. But he had forgotten that the deer had 
four legs, and thus pressed comparatively little on 
any one part, whereas his whole weight was on one 
spot, and he had only reached the middle when in he 
went, in a moment, up to his middle in the freezing 
water. The ducking was quite enough to cool his 
ardour for that day, so that we had him back to 
change his clothes as soon as he could get out of his 
bath ■ and reach the house. Henry got over the 
stream on a log, and followed the track for some dis- 
tance farther, but gave up the chase on finding it 
likely to be unavailing. 

When we first came to live on the river, the deer 



122 Deer-shooting. 

were very numerous. One day in the first winter 
Robert saw a whole herd of them, of some eight or 
ten, feeding close to the house, among our cattle, on 
some browse which had been felled for them. Browse, 
I may say, is the Canadian word for the tender twigs 
of trees, which are so much liked by the oxen and 
cows, and even by the horses, that we used to cut 
down a number of trees, and leave them with the 
branches on them, for the benefit of our four-footed 
retainers. On seeing so grand a chance of bagging 
two deer at a shot, Eobert rushed in for his rifle at 
once, but before he had got it loaded, although he 
flustered through the process with incredible haste, 
and had us all running to bring him powder, ball, 
and wadding, the prey had scented danger, and were 
gone. 

We had quite an excitement one day by the cry 
that a stag was swimming across the river. On look- 
ing up the stream, there he was, sure enough, with 
his noble horns and his head out of the water, doing 
his best to reach the opposite shore. In a few 
minutes we saw John Courtenay and his boys pad- 
dling off in hot haste, in their canoe, in pursuit. 
Every stroke flashed in the light, and the little craft 
skimmed the calm water like an arrow. They were 
soon very close to the great creature, w T hich flew 
faster than ever, and then a bullet from Courtenay' s 
rifle ended the chase in a moment. The stag 
was instantly seized to prevent its sinking, and 



Useless Cruelty. 123 

dragged off to the shore by a rope tied round its 
antlers. 

Some people are cruel enough to kill deer in the 
spring, when their young are with them, and even to 
kill the young themselves, though they are worth 
very little when got. One of the neighbours one 
day wounded a fawn which was following its mother, 
and as usual ran up to secure and kill it. But to 
his astonishment, the maternal affection of the doe 
had so overcome its timidity, that, instead of fleeing 
the moment it heard the shot, it would not leave its 
poor bleeding young one, but turned on him, and 
made such vigorous rushes towards him, again and 
again, that it was only by making all kinds of noise 
he could frighten her far enough back to let him get 
hold of the fawn at last. I wish that instead of 
merely running at him, the loving- hearted creature 
had given him a good hard butt with her head ; it 
would have served him right for such cruelty. Taking 
away life is only justifiable, I think, when there is 
some other end than mere amusement in view. To 
find happiness in destroying that of other living 
beings is a very unworthy enjoyment, when one 
comes to think of it. To go out, as I have seen both 
men and boys do, to shoot the sweet little singing 
birds in the hedges, or the lark when he is flut- 
tering down, after having filled the air with music, 
or the slow-flying seagulls, as they sail heavily near 
the shore, can only give a pleasure so long as those 



124 Useless Cruelty. 

who indulge in it do not reflect on its cruelty. I 
remember, when a boy, being often very much struck 
with this, but, more especially, once, when a boy shot 
a male thrush, as it was bringing home a little worm 
for its young ones, which would very likely die when 
their father was killed ; and, once, when a man shot a 
seagull, which fell far out on the water, from which 
it would often try in vain to rise, but where it would 
have to float, helpless and in pain, till released by 
death. 

Continued persecution, by every one, at all seasons, 
has nearly banished the deer from all the settled 
parts of Canada, for years back. There are game 
laws now, however, fixing a time, within which, to 
destroy them is punishable, and it is to be hoped 
they may do some good. But the rifle is of use only 
for amusement in all the older districts, and if you 
want to get sport like that of old times you must go 
to the frontier townships, where everything is yet 
almost in a state of nature. 

The Indians were harder on every kind of game, 
and still are so, than even the white settlers. They 
have long ago laid aside the bow and arrow of their 
ancestors, in every part of Canada, and availed them- 
selves of the more deadly power of firearms. As 
they have nothing whatever «to do most of their time, 
and as the flesh of deer is, at once, food, and a means 
of getting other things, by bartering it for them, and 
as it suits their natural taste, they used to be, and 



Shedding of the Stag's Horns. 125 

still are, what may be called hunters by profession. 
One Indian and his son, who had built their wigwam 
on our lot, in the first years of our settlement, killed 
in one winter, in about three weeks, no fewer than 
forty deer, but they spoiled everything for the rest 
of the season, as those that escaped them became so 
terrified that they fled to some other part. 

The species of deer common in Canada is the Vir- 
ginian, and, though not so large as some others, their 
long, open ears, and graceful tails — longer than those 
of some other kinds, and inclining to be bushy — give 
them a very attractive appearance. The most curious 
thing about them, as about other deer, was the growth 
and casting of the stags' horns. It is not till the 
spring of the second year that the first pair begin to 
make their appearance, the first sign of their coming 
being a swelling of the skin over the spots from 
which they are to rise. The antlers are now bud- 
ding ; for on these spots are the footstalks from which 
they are to spring, and the arteries are beginning to 
deposit on them, particle by particle, with great ra- 
pidity, the bony matter of which the horns are com- 
posed. As the antlers grow, the skin still stretches 
over them, and continues to do so, till they have 
reached their full size, and have become quite hard 
and solid, and forms a beautiful velvet covering, 
which is, in reality, underneath, nothing but a great 
tissue of blood-vessels for supplying the necessary 
circulation. The arteries which run up from the 



126 Shedding of the Stag's Horns. 

head, through it, are, meanwhile, so large, that they 
make furrows on the soft horns underneath ; and it 
is these that leave the deeper marks on the horns 
when hard. When the antlers are full-grown, they 
look very curious while the velvet is still over them, 
and are so tender that the deer can, as yet, make no 
use of them. It must therefore be removed, but not 
too suddenly, lest the quantity of blood flowing 
through such an extent of skin should be turned to 
the brain or some internal organ, and death be the 
result. Danger is prevented, and the end at the 
same time accomplished, by a rough ring of bone 
being now deposited round the base of the horns 
where they join the footstalk, notches being left in it, 
through which the arteries still pass. Gradually, 
however, these openings are contracted by fresh bone 
being formed round their edges, till at length the 
arteries are compressed as by a ligature, and the cir- 
culation effectually stopped. The velvet now dies, 
for want of the vital fluid, and peels off, the deer 
helping to get it off by rubbing its horns against the 
trees. It was by noticing this process of stopping 
the arteries in the antlers of stags, that John Hunter, 
the great anatomist, first conceived the plan of re- 
ducing the great swellings of the arteries in human 
beings which are called aneurisms, by tying them up 
— a mode which, in certain cases, is found quite 
effectual. The highest thoughts of genius are thus 
frequently only new applications of principles and 



Shedding of the Stag's Horns. 127 

modes of operation which God has established in the 
humblest orders of nature, from the beginning of the 
world. Indeed they are always so, for we cannot 
create any absolutely new conception, but must be 
contented to read and apply wisely the teachings 
furnished by all things around us. When the velvet 
is gone, the horns are, at last, perfect, and the stag 
bears them proudly, and uses them fiercely in his 
battles with his rivals. But the cutting off the arte- 
ries makes them no longer a part of the general sys- 
tem of the animal. They are, thenceforth, only held 
on to the footstalks by their having grown from them, 
and, hence, each spring, when a new pair begin to 
swell up from beneath, the old ones are pushed off 
and fall away, to make room for others. It is curious 
to think that such great things as full-grown stags' 
horns drop off and are renewed every year ; but so 
it is. Beginning with the single horn of the first 
season, they grow so much larger each season till the 
seventh, when they reach their greatest size. But, 
after all, is it any more wonderful that their horns 
should grow once a-year, than that our hair should 
grow all the time ? And is a horn anything more 
than hair stuck together ? 



128 



CHAPTER VII. 

Wolves — My adventure with a bear — Courtenay's cow and 
the wolves — A fright in the woods by night — The river 
freezes — Our winter fires — Cold, cold, cold ! — A winter's 
journey — Sleighing — Winter mufflings — Accidents through 
intense cold. 

The wolves used to favour us by howling at nights, 
close at hand, till the sound made one miserable. 
We had five sheep destroyed in the barn-yard on 
one of these occasions, nothing being done to them 
beyond tearing the throats open and drinking the 
blood. Perhaps the wolves had been disturbed at 
their feast. I never heard of any one being killed 
by them, but they sometimes put benighted tra- 
vellers in danger. One night, Henry was coming 
home from a neighbour's, in the bright moonlight, and 
had almost reached our clearing, when, to his horror, 
he heard the cry of some wolves behind him, and, 
feeling sure they wished to make their supper at 
his expense, he made off, with the fastest heels he 
could, to a tree that stood by itself, and was easily 
climbed. Into this he got just in time to save him- 
self, for the wolves were already at the foot of it, 
when he had made good his seat across a bough. 
The night was fearfully cold, and he must soon 



Wolves. 129 

have frozen to death had he not, providentially, been 
so near the house. As it was, his loud whistling for 
the dogs, and his shouts, were, fortunately, heard, and 
some of us sallying out, he was delivered from his 
perilous position. Wolves are much scarcer now, 
however, I am thankful to say, owing in part, no 
doubt, to a reward of two sovereigns which is oiFered 
by Government for every head brought in. In the 
regions north of Canada they seem to abound, and 
even on the shores of the Arctic Ocean they are 
found in great numbers. Sir John Franklin, in one 
of his earlier journeys, often came upon the remains 
of deer which had been hemmed in by them and 
driven over precipices. " Whilst the deer are quietly 
grazing," says he, " the wolves assemble in great 
numbers, and, forming a deep crescent, creep slowly 
towards the herd, so as not to alarm them much at 
first; but when they perceive that they have fairly 
hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut off 
their retreat across the plain, they move more 
quickly, and with hideous yells terrify their prey 
and urge them to flight by the only open way, which 
is towards the precipice, appearing to know that 
when the herd is at full speed it is easily driven over 
the cliffs, the rear-most urging on those that are 
before. The wolves then descend at leisure and 
feed on the mangled carcasses." 

There were some bears in the woods, but they 
did not trouble us. My sister Margaret and I were 
K 



130 Courtenatfs Cow and the Wolves, 

the only two of our family who had an adventure 
with one, and that ended in a fright. It was in the 
summer time, and we had strolled out into the woods 
to amuse ourselves with picking the wild berries, and 
gathering flowers. I had climbed to the top of the 
upturned root of a tree, the earth on which was 
thick with fruit, and my sister was at a short dis- 
tance behind. Having just got up, I chanced to 
turn round and look down, when, lo ! there stood a 
bear, busy at the raspberries, which he seemed to 
like as much as we did. You may be certain that 
the first sight of it was enough. I sprang down in 
an instant, and, shouting to my sister that there was a 
bear behind the tree, we, both, made off homewards 
with a speed which astonished even ourselves. The 
poor brute never offered to disturb us, though he 
might have made a meal of either of us had he 
chosen, for I don't think we could have run had we 
seen him really after us. 

I had forgotten a story about the wolves which 
happened a year or two after our first settling. John 
Courtenay had a cow which fell sick, and was lying 
in the field, after night, in the winter time, very likely 
without any one missing it, or, if they missed it, 
without their knowing where to find it in the dark. 
The wolves, however, did not overlook it, for, next 
morning, poor Cowslip was found killed by them, and 
its carcass having been left, the family not liking to use 
it under the circumstances, they held high carnival 



A Fright in the Woods ly Night. 131 

over it, night after night, till the bones were picked 
clean. This happened quite close to the house. 

But if there were not many bears and wolves to 
be seen, we were not the less afraid they would 
pounce on us, when, by any chance, we should 
happen to be coming through the woods after dark. 
I remember a young friend and myself being half 
frightened in this way one summer evening when 
there chanced to be no moon, and we had to walk 
home, through the great gloomy forest, when it was 
pitch dark. Before starting, we were furnished with 
a number of long slips of the bark of the hickory- 
tree, which is very inflammable, and, having each 
lighted one, we sallied out on our journey. I shall 
never forget the wild look of everything in the 
flickering light, the circle of darkness closing in 
round us at a very short distance. But on we went, 
along the winding path, hither and thither, among 
the trees. Suddenly an unearthly sound broke from 
one side, a sort of screech, which was repeated again 
and again. We took it for granted some bear and 
her young ones were at hand, but where, it seemed 
impossible for us to discover. How could we run 
in such darkness over such a path, with lights to 
carry ? Both of us stood still to listen. Again 
came the " hoo, hoo, hoo;" and I assure you it 
sounded very loud in the still forest. But, though 
terrible to me, I noticed that, when distinctly caught, 
it ceased to alarm my comrade. " It's only a great 
k2 



132 The River Freezes. 

owl up in the tree there — what's the use of being 
frightened ?" he broke out; yet he had been as much 
so as myself, the moment before. However, we now 
made up for our panic by a hearty laugh, and went 
on in quietness to the house. 

Towards the end of December the river froze. 
This was, in great part, caused by large blocks of ice 
floating down from Lake Superior, and getting 
caught on the banks, as they went past, by the ice 
already formed there. For one to touch another, 
was to make them adhere for the rest of the winter, 
and, thus, in a very short time after it had begun, 
the whole surface was as solid as a stone. We had 
now to cut a hole every morning, with the axe, 
through the ice, to let the cattle drink, and to get 
water for the house, and cold work it was. The 
cattle came down themselves, but when, a year or 
two afterwards, we got horses, they had to be led 
twice a day. It was very often my task to take 
them. Eiding was out of the question, from the 
steepness of the bank, and the way in which their 
feet balled with the snow, so I used to sally out for 
them in a thick great-coat, with the ears of my cap 
carefully tied down, to prevent frostbites; a thick 
worsted cravat round my neck, and thick mitts on 
my hands. The floor of the stable was, invariably, 
a sheet of ice, and over this I had to get out the two 
horses, letting the one out over the icy slope at the 
door, and then holding the halter till the second one 



Our Winter Fires. 133 

had slid past me, when, having closed the door, with 
hands like the snow, from having had to loosen the 
halters, I went down with them. When the wind 
was from the north they were white in a step or 
two, with their breath frozen on their chests and 
sides, the cold making it like smoke as it left their 
nostrils. Of course they were in no hurry, and 
would put their tails to the wind and drink a 
minute, and then lift up their heads and look round 
them at their leisure, as if it were June. By the 
time they were done, their mouths and chins were 
often coated with ice, long icicles hanging from the 
hair all round. Eight glad was I when at last I had 
them fairly back again, and had knocked out the 
balls of snow from their shoes, to let them stand 
firm. 

The cold did not last all the time, else we could 
never have endured it. There would be two or 
three days of hard frost, and then it would come 
milder for two or three more; but the mildest, 
except when it was a thaw, in January, were very 
much colder than any that are common in England, 
and as to the coldest, what shall I say they were 
like ? The sky was as bright and clear as can be 
imagined, the snow crackled under foot, and the 
wind, when there was any, cut the skin like a razor. 
Indoors, the fire in the kitchen was enough to heat a 
large hall in a more temperate climate. It was never 
allowed to go out, the last thing at night being to 



134 Cold, cold> cold I 

roll a huge back-log, as they called it, into the fire- 
place, with hand-spokes, two of us sometimes having 
to help to get it into its place. It was simply a cut 
of a tree, about four feet long, and of various thick- 
nesses. The two dog-irons having been drawn out, 
and the embers heaped close to this giant, a number 
of thinner logs, whole and in parts, were then laid 
above them, and the fire was "gathered" for the 
night. By day, what with another huge back-log to 
replace the one burned up in the night, and a great 
bank of other smaller " sticks" in front and over it, 
I think there was often half a cart-load blazing at a 
time. In fact, the only measure of the quantity was 
the size of the huge chimney, for the wood cost no- 
thing except the trouble of cutting and bringing it to 
the house. It was grand to sit at night before the 
roaring mountain of fire and forget the cold outside ; 
but it was a frightful thing to dress in the morning, 
in the bitter cold of the bedrooms, with the windows 
thick with frost, and the water frozen solid at your 
side. If you touched a tumbler of water with your 
toothbrush it would often freeze in a moment, and 
the water in the basin sometimes froze round the 
edges while we were washing. The tears would 
come out of our eyes, and freeze on our cheeks as 
they rolled down. The towels were regularly frozen 
like a board, if they had been at all damp. Water, 
brought in overnight in buckets, and put as close to 
the fire as possible, had to be broken with an axe in 



Cold, cold, cold! 135 

the morning. The bread, for long after we went to 
the river, till we got a new house, was like a stone 
for hardness, and sparkled with the ice in it. The 
milk froze on the way from the barn to the house, 
and even while they were milking. If you went 
out, your eyelashes froze together every moment with 
your breath on them, and my brothers' whiskers 
were always white with frozen breath when they 
came in. Beef and everything of the kind were 
frozen solid for months together, and, when a piece 
was wanted, it had to be sawn off and put in cold 
water overnight to thaw it, or hung up in the house. 
I have known beef that had been on for hours taken 
out almost raw, from not having been thawed before- 
hand. One of the coldest nights I remember hap- 
pened once when I was from home. I was to sleep 
at the house of a magistrate in the village, and had 
gone with a minister who was travelling for the 
British and Foreign Bible Society to attend a meet- 
ing he had appointed. It was held in a wooden 
schoolhouse, with three windows on each side, and a 
single storey high. There was a stove at the end 
nearest the door, which opened into the room ; the 
pipe of it was carried up to near the roof, and then 
led along the room to a chimney at the opposite end. 
The audience consisted of seven or eight men and 
boys, though the night was magnificent, the stars 
hanging from the dark blue like sparkling globes of 
light. The cold, in fact, was so intense that nobody 



136 Cold, cold, cold! 

would venture out. When I got in, I found the 
congregation huddled round the stove, which one of 
them, seated in front of it, was assiduously stuffing 
with wood, as often as the smallest chance offered of 
his being able to add to its contents. The stove itself 
was as red as the fire inside of it, and the pipe, for 
more than a yard up, was the same ; but our backs 
were wretchedly cold, notwithstanding, though we sat 
within a few inches of the glowing iron. As to the 
windows, the rime on them never thought of melting, 
but lay thick and hard as ever. How the unfortunate 
speaker bore his place at the master's desk at the far 
end I know not. He had only one arm, indeed, but 
the hand of the other was kept deeply bedded in his 
pocket all the time. We were both to sleep at the 
same house, and therefore returned together, and 
after supper were shown into a double-bedded room 
with a painted floor, and a great stove in the middle. 
A delightful roar up the pipe promised comfort for 
the night, but alas ! in a few minutes it died away, 
the fire having been made of chips instead of sub- 
stantial billets. Next morning, on waking, looking 
over to Mr. Thompson, I expressed a hope that he 
had rested well through the night. 

"Kested !" said he ; " I thawed a piece my own 
size last night when I first got in, and have lain in it 
all night as if it had been my coffin. I daren't put 
out my leg or my hand ; it was like ice up to my 
body." 



A Winter's Journey. 137 

One winter I had a dreadful journey of about two 
hundred miles. We started in the stage, which was 
an open rough waggon, at seven o'clock at night, the 
roads not as yet permitting sleighs. It was in the 
first week of January. I had on two great- coats, but 
there were no buffalo robes to lay over the knees, 
though the stage should have provided them. All 
that dreadful dark night I had to sit there, while the 
horses stumbled on at a walk, and the waggon bumped 
on the frozen clods most dreadfully. The second 
day's ride was much better, that part of the road 
being smoother ; but the next day and night — what 
shall I say of them ? I began in a covered sleigh, 
some time in the forenoon, the distance being seventy 
miles. There was another person in it besides my- 
self. Off we started at a good pace, but such was 
the roughness of the road, up one wave of frozen 
earth and snow, and down another, that both of us 
were thoroughly sea-sick in a short time. Each took 
possession of a window, and getting the head in again 
was out of the question till the sickness fairly spent 
itself. Meanwhile, there was a large high wooden 
box in the sleigh between us, and we had to keep a 
hand a-piece on it, lest it should take us at unawares, 
and make a descent on our legs or backs. After a 
time, the covered sleigh was exchanged for an open 
one — a great heavy farmer's affair, a mere long box 
upon runners. To add to our troubles, they put a 
great black horse, as one of the two to draw us, 



138 Sleighing. 

which was so wild and fierce that I have always 
thought it must have been mad. It was now dark 
night, and there were again no buffalo robes, and 
the thermometer far below zero. How we stood it 
I know not. My feet were like ice, and inces- 
sant motion of both them and my arms seemed all 
that could keep me from freezing. But away the 
black wretch tore, the driver pulling him back as he 
could, but in vain. At last, at two or three in the 
morning, bang went the sleigh against some stump, 
or huge lump of frozen mud, and — broke down. 
" You'll have to get out, gentlemen," said the driver. 
" You had better walk on to the first house, and I'll 
go before you and borrow a sleigh." Here then we 
were, turned out to stumble over a chaos of holes 
and hillocks for nearly two miles, in darkness, and in 
such a night ! I don't know how long we were, but 
we reached a wayside inn at last, where the driver 
borrowed what he could get to carry us and the mails 
to the journey's end, and having gone back for the 
bags and his parcels, and that horrid box, to where 
he had left the broken vehicle at the roadside, he re- 
appeared after a time, and we finished our journey, 
tired and cold enough, a little before daylight. 

The amount of suffering from the cold, seldom, 
however, reaches any painful extent; indeed, you 
will hear people say, on every hand, that they posi- 
tively like it, except when it is stormy, or when the 
wind blows very keenly. Nor does it hinder work 



Winter Muffling s. 139 

of any kind, where there is exercise enough. You 
may see men chopping in the forest in terribly cold 
days, with their jackets off, the swinging of the arms 
making them disagreeably hot in spite of the weather. 
Sleighing is, moreover, the great winter amusement 
of the Canadian, who seems never so pleased as when 
driving fast in a " cutter," with the jingling bells on 
the horse's neck making music as it goes. But, for 
my part, I could never bear sitting with my face to 
the wind, while I was dragged through it at the rate 
of ten miles an hour, with the thermometer below 
zero. All the mufflings you can put on wont protect 
the cheeks or the eyes, and the hands get intolerably 
cold holding the reins. Indeed, the precautions taken 
by those who have much travelling about in winter 
show that, to those less fully prepared, there must be 
suffering as well as enjoyment. Our doctor's outfit 
for his winter practice used to amuse me. He had, 
first, a huge otter fur cap, with ears ; next, over his 
great-coat, the skin of a buffalo made into a coat, 
with the hairy side out, and reaching to his feet ; his 
feet were cased in mocassins, which came over his 
boots and tied round the ankles ; a pair of great hose 
reached up his thighs; his hands were muffled in 
huge fur gauntlets reaching half-way to his elbow ; 
and when he took his seat in his sleigh with all this 
wrapping, he sat down on a buffalo- skin spread over 
the seat, and stretching down over the bottom, while 
another was tucked in over him, his feet resting on 



140 Accidents through Intense Cold. 

the lower edge of it to keep out every breath of air ; 
and, in addition, he always had hot bricks put inside 
on starting, and re-heated them every short while. 
No wonder he used to say that he felt quite comfort- 
able. He had clothes and furs enough on him for 
Greenland. In spite of all this, however, I remember 
his driving back, home, in great haste one day, with 
his wife and child, and found that the face of the 
infant had been partially frozen in a ride of four or 
five miles. Cases of death from the excessive cold 
are not infrequent. A drunken man, falling on the 
road, is certain to die if not speedily found. A poor 
Indian was frozen to death on the river in this way 
a short time after we came. But even the most 
sober people are sometimes destroyed by the awful 
intensity of the cold. I knew a young widow who 
had lost her husband in this way. He had gone to 
town in his sleigh, one Christmas, on business, and 
was returning, when he felt very cold, and turned 
aside to heat himself at a farm-house. Poor fellow ! 
he was already so frozen that he died shortly after 
coming to the lire. This last winter, a farmer and 
his daughter were driving in from the country to 
Toronto, and, naturally enough, said little to each 
other, not caring to expose their faces; but when 
they had reached the city and should have alighted, 
to her horror the daughter found that her father was 
stone dead, frozen at her side by the way. At 
Christmas there are a great many shooting-matches, 



Accidents through Intense Cold. 141 

at which whoever kills most pigeons, let loose from a 
trap, at a certain distance, wins a turkey. I was one 
day riding past one of these, and noticed a group of 
spectators standing round, but thought no more of it, 
till, next morning, I learned that, when the match was 
done and the people dispersed, a boy was seen who 
continued to stand still on the vacant ground, and, on 
going up to him, it was found that he had been frozen 
stiff, and was stone dead. A minister once told me 
that he had been benighted on a lonely road in the 
depth of the winter and could get on no further, and, 
for a time, hardly knew what to do. At last he re- 
solved to take out his horse, and, after tying its two 
fore legs together, let it seek what it could for itself 
till morning, while he himself commenced walking 
round a great tree that was near, and continued doing 
so, without resting, till the next morning. Had he 
sat down, he would have fallen asleep ; and if he had 
slept, he would certainly have died. My brother 
Henry, who, after a time, turned to the study of me- 
dicine, and has risen to be a professor in one of the 
colleges, took me, one day, to the hospital, with him, 
and, turning into one of the wards, walked up to the 
bed of a young man. Lifting up the bottom of the 
clothes, he told me to look; and, — what a sight! 
Both the feet had been frozen off at the ankle, 
and the red stumps were slowly healing. A poor 
man called, once, begging, whose fingers were all 
gone. He had walked some miles without gloves, 



142 Accidents through Intense Cold. 

and had known nothing about how to manage frozen 
limbs ; his fingers had frozen, had been neglected, and 
had mortified, till at last such as did not drop off were 
pulled out, he told me, with pincers, being utterly rotten 
at the joints. I know a young man, a law student, 
whose fingers are mere bone and skin : he was snow- 
balling, and paid the penalty in the virtual destruction 
of his hands. A curious case happened some years 
ago, resulting in the recovery of two thousand pounds 
of damages from the mail company. The stage from 
Montreal, westward, broke through an airhole on the 
St. Lawrence, when driving over the ice, and all the 
passengers were immersed in the river, one of them 
getting both his hands so frozen that he lost them 
entirely. They were both taken off at the wrists. 
The money was a poor consolation for such a ca- 
lamity. I have known of a gentleman losing both 
hands by taking off his fur gloves to get better con- 
trol over a runaway horse. He got it stopped, but 
his hands were lost in the doing it. 

The ice of the river used to give us abundant room 
for skating, where it was smooth enough. Near the 
towns every one skates, even the ladies, of late years, 
doing their best at it. But the ice, with us, was often 
too rough for this graceful and healthy exercise, so 
that it was less practised than it otherwise would 
have been. 



143 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The aurora borealis — "Jumpers" — Squaring timber — Rafts 
— Camping out — A public meeting — Winter fashions — My 
toe frozen — A long winter's walk — Hospitality — Nearly 
lost in the woods. 

The grandeur of the aurora borealis, in the cold 
weather, particularly struck us. At times the whole 
heavens would be irradiated bj it — shafts of light 
stretching from every side to the zenith, or clouds of 
brightness, of the softest rose, shooting, from every 
point of the horizon, high overhead. It was like the 
Hindoo legend of Indra's palace, which South ey de~ 
scribes so beautifully : 

" Even we on earth at intervals descry 

Gleams of the glory, streaks of flowing light, 
Openings of Heaven, and streams that flash at nighfe 
In fitful splendour, through the northern sky." 

Curse of Kehama, vii. 72. 

The fondness of almost every one for sleigh-riding 
was ludicrously shown in the contrivances invented 
in some cases to get the enjoyment of the luxury. 
The richer settlers, of course, had very comfortable 
vehicles, with nice light runners, and abundance of 
skins of various kinds, to adorn them, and make them 
warm ; but every one was not so fortunate, and yet 



144 "Jumpers" 

all were determined that ride they would. " Have 
you anything to go in ?" I have heard asked, once 
and again, with the answer, " No, but I guess we can 
rig up a jumper pretty soon." This "jumper," 
when it made its appearance, if it were of the most 
primitive type, consisted simply of two long poles, 
with the bark on them, the one end to drag on the 
ground, and the other to serve for shafts for the 
horse; a cross-bar here and there behind, let into 
them through auger-holes, serving to keep them 
together. An old box, fixed on roughly above, served 
for a body to the carriage ; and, then, off they went, 
scraping along the snow in a wonderful way. Instead 
of buffalo-robes, if they had none, a coloured bed- 
quilt, wrapped round them, served to keep them warm. 
An old wood- sleigh, with a box on it, was something 
more aristocratic ; but anything that would merely 
hold them was made to pass muster. With plenty 
of trees at hand, and an axe and auger, a backwoods- 
man never thinks himself unprovided while the 
snow continues. 

It is in the winter that the great work of cutting 
and squaring timber, in the forests, for export to 
Europe, is done. Millions of acres, covered with 
the noblest trees, invite the industry of the wealthier 
merchants by the promise of liberal profit, along 
the whole edge of Canada, towards the north, from 
the Ottawa to Lake Huron. What the quan- 
tity of timber this vast region contains must be 



Squaring Timber. 115 

may be estimated in some measure from the report 
of the Crown Land Commissioner, a few years since, 
which says that, in the Ottawa district alone, there 
is enough to answer every demand for the next six 
hundred years, if they continue felling it at the 
present rate. There is no fear, assuredly, of wood 
running short in Canada for many a day. The rafts 
brought down from Lake Huron alone are won- 
derful — thousands on thousands of immense trees, 
squared so as to lie closely together, each long 
enough, apparently, to be a mast for a large vessel. 
I have looked over the wilderness of the forest from 
two points — the one, the limestone ridge that runs 
from Niagara northward — the other, from the top of 
the sand-hills on the edge of Lake Huron — and no 
words can tell the solemn grandeur of the prospect in 
either case. Far as the eye could reach there was 
nothing to be seen but woods — woods — woods — a 
great sea of verdure, with a billowy roll, as the trees 
varied in height, or the lights and shadows played 
on them. It is said that the open desert impresses 
the traveller with a sense of its sublimity that is 
almost overpowering — the awful loneliness, the vast, 
naked, and apparently boundless sweep of the 
horizon on every side, relieved by no life or motion, 
or even variety of outline, subduing all alike. But I 
question if the sight of an American forest be not 
equally sublime. The veil cast by the trees over 
the landscape they adorn; the dim wonder what 



146 Squaring Timber. 

may live beneath them, what waters flow, what lakes 
sparkle ; the consciousness that you look on nature 
in her own unprofaned retreats ; that before a white 
man had seen these shores the summer had already 
waked this wondrous spectacle of life and beauty, 
year after year, for ages ; the thoughts of mystery 
prompted by such " a boundless deep immensity of 
shade;" the sense of vastness, inseparable from the 
thought that the circle of your horizon, which so 
overpowers you, sweeps on, in equal grandeur, over 
boundless regions — all these and other thoughts fill 
the mind with awe and tenderness. 

The district in which, chiefly, " lumber men," 
strictly so called, ply their vocation, is on the Upper 
Ottawa, where vast tracts of pine and other trees are 
leased from Government by merchants in Quebec, 
Montreal, and elsewhere. For these gloomy regions 
vast numbers of lumberers set out from Kingston and 
Ottawa in the autumn, taking with them their 
winter's provision of pork, flour, &c. ; and building 
" shanties" for themselves — that is, rough huts, to 
live in through the long winter — as soon as they 
reach their limits. Intensely severe as the cold is, 
they do not care for it. Sleeping at nights with their 
feet to the fire, and " roughing" it by day as no 
labourers would think of doing in England, they 
keep up the highest spirits and the most vigorous 
health. To fell and square the trees is only part of 
their labour; they must also drag them, over the 



Rafts. 147 

snow, to the river, by oxen, and join them into rafts 
after getting them to it. To form these, a large 
number of logs are laid closely, side by side, and 
lashed together by long, thin, supple, rods tied round 
pins driven into them, and further secured by 
transverse poles pinned down on them; and they are 
then floated as rafts towards the St. Lawrence, which 
they gradually reach, after passing, by means of con- 
trivances called " slides," over the rough places, where 
the channel is broken into rapids. As they go down, 
poling or sailing, or shooting the slides, their course is 
enlivened by the songs and shouts of the crew, and 
very exciting it is to see and hear them. Once in 
the broad, smooth water, several smaller rafts are 
often joined together, and everything carefully 
prepared for finally setting out for the lower 
ports. Even from their starting, they are often 
rigged out with short masts and sails, and houses 
are built on them, in which the crew take up 
their abode during the voyage. When they are 
larger, quite a number of sails are raised, so that 
they form very striking objects, when slowly gliding 
down the river, a rude steering-apparatus behind 
guiding the vast construction.* 

It is wonderful how men stand the exposure of the 
winter in the forests as they do. Indeed, a fine 
young fellow, a friend of mine, a surveyor, told me 

* On the upper lakes, the crew often take their wives and 
children, with their poultry, &c, on the rafts with them. 

l2 



148 Camping out. 

that he liked nothing better than to go off to the 
depths of the wilderness in the fall, and " camp out" 
amidst the snows, night after night, till the spring 
thaws and the growth of the leaves forced an inter- 
mission of the work of his profession. An adventure 
that happened to a party who had, on one occasion, 
to travel some distance along a river-bed, in winter, 
is only a sample of what is continually met with, 
beyond the settled parts of the country. There were 
seven or eight of them in all, including two half- 
breeds, whom they had employed, partly as guides, 
and, partly, to draw their slight luggage, on hand- 
sleighs, over the ice. The whole party had to wear 
snow-shoes to keep them from sinking into the soft 
snow, which had drifted, in many places, to a great 
depth ; and this itself, except to experienced hands, 
is at once very exhausting and painful. The snow- 
shoe is simply a large oval frame of light wood, 
crossed with a netting, on which the foot rests, and 
to which it is strapped, the extent of surface thus 
presented enabling the wearer to pass safely over 
drifts, in which, otherwise, he would at once sink. 
Starting at the first break of the dawn, they plodded 
on as well as they could, the ankles and knees of some 
of them getting more and more painful at every step 
with the weight of the great snow-shoes underneath. 
It was no use attempting to pick their steps in such 
a depth of snow, so that they had to take their chance 
of getting on some unsafe part of the ice at any 



Camping out. 149 

moment. Meanwhile, the sky got darker and more 
lowering, until, at last, it broke into a snow-storm so 
heavy that they could hardly see one another at a 
few yards' distance. The wind, which was very 
strong, blew directly in their faces, and howled 
wildly through the trees on each side, whirling the 
drift in thick clouds in every direction. Still they 
held on as well as they could, in moody silence, till, 
at last, it was evident to all that they must give up 
the struggle, and make as good an encampment as 
they could, for the night, where they were. Turning 
aside, therefore, into the forest, where a dark stretch 
of pine-trees promised protection, they proceeded to 
get ready their resting-place. With the help of their 
axes, a maple was soon felled, and large pieces of bark, 
from the fallen trees around, formed shovels, by 
which a square spot of ground was cleared of the 
snow. A fire was the next great subject of interest, 
and this they obtained by rubbing some of the 
fibrous bark of the white cedar to powder, and lay- 
ing over it first thin peelings of birch-bark, and 
then the bark itself, a match sufficing to set the pile 
in a blaze, and the whole forest offering fuel. Piling 
log on log into a grand heap, the trees around were 
soon lighted up with a glow that shone far and near. 
To protect themselves from the snow, which was 
still falling, a quantity of spruce-boughs were next 
laid overhead on the rampart of snow which had been 
banked up round them to the height of nearly five 



150 A Public Meeting. 

feet, the cold of the day being so great that the fierce 
fire blazing close at hand made no impression on it 
whatever. Slices of salt pork, toasted on a stick at 
the fire, having been got ready by some, and broth, 
cooked in a saucepan, by others, they now took their 
comfort as best they could in a primitive supper, logs 
round the fire serving for seats. After this came 
their tobacco-pipes and a long smoke, and then each 
of the party lay down with his feet to the fire, and 
slept, covered with snow, till daylight next morning. 
This is the life led, week after week, by those 
whose avocations call them to frequent the forests 
during winter ; nor are the comforts of some of the 
poorer settlers in new districts, while they live in 
" shanties," at their first coming, much greater, nor 
their exposure much less. 

A public meeting, held in the next township, gave 
us an opportunity of seeing the population of a wide 
district in all the variety of winter costume. We 
went in a neighbour's sleigh, drawn by a couple of 
rough horses, whose harness, tied here and there with 
rope, and unprovided with anything to keep the 
traces from falling down, or the sleigh from running 
on the horses' heels, looked as unsafe as possible. 
But Canadian horses know how to act under such 
circumstances, as if they had studied them, and had 
contrived the best plan for avoiding unpleasant results. 
They never walked down any descent, but, on coming 
to any gully, dashed down the icy slope at a hard 



A Pullic Meeting. 151 

gallop, and, flying across the logs which formed a 
bridge at the bottom, tore up the opposite ascent, till 
forced to abate their speed by the weight of the ve- 
hicle. Then came the driver's part to urge them up 
the rest of the acclivity by every form of threatening 
and persuasion in the vocabulary of his craft ; and 
the obstacle once surmounted, off we were again at a 
smart trot. It was rather mild weather, however, 
for comfortable sleighing, the snow in deep places 
being little better than slush, through which it was 
heavy and slow work to drag us At others, the 
ground was well-nigh bare, and then the iron-shod 
runners of the sleigh gave us most unpleasant music 
as they grated on the stones and gravel. A3 to 
shaking and jumbling, there was enough of both, aa 
often as we struck on a lump of frozen snow, or some 
other obstruction ; but, at last, we got to our journey's 
end. The village was already thronged by numbers 
who had come from all parts, for it was a political 
meeting, and all Canadians are politicians. Such 
costumes as some exhibited are surely to be seen no- 
where else. One man, I noticed, had a suit made of 
drugget carpeting, with a large flower on a bright- 
green ground for pattern, one of the compartments of 
it reaching from his collar far down his back. 
Blanket coats of various colours, tied round the waist 
with a red sash, buffalo coats, fur caps of all sizes 
and shapes, mocassins, or coarse Wellingtons, with 
the trowser-legs tucked into them, mitts, gloves, and 



—4- 



152 A Pullic Meeting. 

fur gauntlets, added variety to the picture. Almost 
every one was smoking at some time or other. The 
sleighs were ranged, some under the shed of the vil- 
lage tavern, others along the sides of the street, the 
horses looking like nondescript animals, from the 
skins and coverlets thrown over them to protect them 
from the cold. The "bar" of the tavern was the 
great attraction to many, and its great blazing fire, 
on which a cartload of wood glowed with exhilirating 
heat, to others. Every one on entering, after des- 
perate stamping and scraping to get the snow from 
the feet, and careful brushing of the legs with a broom, 
to leave as little as possible for melting, made straight 
to it, holding up each foot by turns to get it dried, as 
far as might be. There was no pretence at showing 
deference to any one ; a labourer had no hesitation 
in taking the only vacant seat, though his employer 
were left standing. " Treating" and being " treated" 
went on with great spirit at the bar, mutual strangers 
asking each other to drink as readily as if they had 
been old friends. Wine-glasses were not to be seen, 
but, instead, tumblers were set out, and " a glass" was 
left to mean what any one chose to pour into them. 
One old man I saw put his hand in a knowing way 
round his tumbler, to hide his filling it to the brim ; 
but he proved to be a confirmed and hopeless drunk- 
ard, who had already ruined himself and his family, 
and was able to get drunk only at the expense of 
others. 



My Toe Frozen. 153 

We stayed for a time to listen to the speeches, 
which were delivered from a small balcony before 
the window of the tavern, but were very uninterest- 
ing to me, at least, though the crowd stood patiently 
in the snow to hear them. I confess I was glad when 
our party thought they had heard enough, and turned 
their sleigh homewards once more. 

I had the misfortune to get one of my great toes 
frozen in the second or third winter. We were 
working at the edge of the woods, repairing a fence 
which had been blown down. The snow was pretty 
deep, and I had been among it some hours, and did 
not feel colder than usual, my feet being every day as 
cold as lead, whenever I was not moving actively 
about. I had had my full measure of stamping and 
jumping to try to keep up the circulation, and had 
no suspicion of anything extra, till, on coming 
home, having taken off my stockings to heat myself 
better, to my consternation, the great toe of my left 
foot was as white as wax — the sure sign that it was 
frozen. Heat being of all things the most dangerous 
in such circumstances, I had at once to get as far as 
possible from the fire, while some one brought me a 
large basin of snow, with which I kept rubbing the 
poor stiff member for at least an hour before it came 
to its right hue. But what shall I say of the pain of 
returning circulation ? Freezing is nothing, but 
thawing is agony. It must be dreadful indeed where 
the injury has been extensive. Even to this day, 



154 Hospitality. 

notwithstanding all my rubbing, there is still a tender 
spot in the corner of my boot on cold days. It was 
a mercy I noticed it in time, for had I put my feet 
to the fire without first thawing it, I might have had 
serious trouble, and have lost it, after great suffering. 
A gentleman I knew, who got his feet frozen in 1813, 
in marching with his regiment from Halifax, in Nova 
Scotia, to Niagara — a wonderful achievement in the 
depth of winter, through an uninhabited wilderness 
buried in snow — never perfectly recovered the use 
of them, and walked lame to the day of his death. 

In our early days in Canada, the sacred duty of 
hospitality was observed with a delightful readiness 
and freeness. A person who had not the means of 
paying might have travelled from one end of the 
country to another, without requiring money, and he 
would everywhere have found a cheerful welcome. 
The fact was that the sight of a strange face was a 
positive relief from the monotony of everyday life, 
and the news brought by each visitor was felt to be 
as pleasant to hear, as the entertainment could be for 
him to receive. But selfish thoughts did not, after 
all, dim the beautiful open-handedness of backwoods 
hospitality. No thought of any question or doubt 
rose in the matter — to come to the door was to rest 
for the night, and share the best of the house. I 
was once on my way westward to the St. Clair, from 
London, Canada West, just in the interval between 
the freezing of the roads and the tall of the snow. 



Hospitality. 155 

The stage could not run, nor was travelling by any- 
kind of vehicle practicable ; indeed, none could have 
survived the battering it would have got, had it 
been brought out. As I could not wait doing nothing 
for an indefinite time, till snow made sleighing pos- 
sible, which I was told by the stage proprietor " might 
be a week, might be a fortnight," I determined to 
walk the sixty miles as best I could. 

But such roads ! As to walking, it was impossible ; 
I had rather to leap from one hillock of frozen mud 
to another, now in the middle, now at each side, by 
turns. There was a little snow, which only made my 
difficulties greater, clogging the feet, and covering up 
holes. For yards together, the road had been washed 
away by the rains, and its whole surface was dotted 
with innumerable little frozen lakes, where the water 
had lodged in the huge cups and craters of mud which 
joined each other in one long network the whole way. 
It was a dreadful scramble, in which daylight was 
absolutely necessary to save broken legs. No man 
could have got over it in the dark. In the early 
afternoon, I reached a tavern at the roadside and had 
dinner, but as I was told that there was another, seven 
miles ahead, I thought I could reach it before night, 
and thus get so much nearer my journey's end. But 
I had reckoned beyond my powers, and darkness fell 
while I was as yet far from my goal. Luckily, a 
little log-house at a distance showed itself near the 
road by the light through its windows. Stumbling 



156 Hospitality. 

towards it as I best could, I told them how I was 
benighted, and asked if I could get shelter till 
morning. 

" Come in, sir," said the honest proprietor, " an' 
ye're welcome." He proved to be a decent shoe- 
maker ; a young man, with a tidy young woman for 
his wife ; and as I entered, he beckoned me to be 
seated, while he continued at his work on an old 
shoe, by the help of a candle before him. 

" Bad roads," said I. 

" Oh, very," answered my host. " I never puts 
any man away from my door ; nobody could get to 
the tavern over sich roads as them. Take your coat 
off, and make yourself comfortable." 

I did as I was told, and chatted with the couple 
about all the ordinary topics of backwoods conversa- 
tion — the price of land — the last crops — how long he 
had been there, and so on, till tea, or as they called 
it, supper ; for Canadians generally take only three 
meals a day. And a right hearty meal I made, 
from a display of abundance of snowy bread, excel- 
lent butter, ham in large slices, and as much tea 
as there might be water in the kettle, for tea is the 
weak point in bush fare. When bedtime came, I found 
there was only one bed in the house, and could not 
imagine how they were to do with me ; but this was 
soon solved by their dragging the feather bed off, 
and bringing it out where I was, from the inner 
room, and spreading it on the floor opposite the 



Nearly Lost in the Woods. 157 

fire. Nothing would induce them to keep it to them- 
selves and give me anything else ; I was their guest, and 
they would have me entertained as well as they could. 
Next morning, a famous breakfast was got ready, and 
I was again made to sit down with them. But not 
a word would the honest fellow hear about money. 
u He would never be the worse for giving a bed and 
a meal to a traveller, and I was very welcome." So 
I had to thank them very sincerely and bid them 
good-day, with their consciousness of having done a 
kindness as their only reward. On this second day's 
journey, I had the most awkward mishap that ever 
befel me in the woods. I was all but lost in them, 
and that just as the sun was about to set. The roads 
were so frightful that I could hardly get on, and 
hence, when the landlord of one of the wayside 
taverns told me I would save some miles by cutting 
through the bush at a point he indicated, I was very- 
glad to follow his advice. But trees are all very 
much alike, and by the time I got to where he told 
me to leave the road, I must have become confused ; 
for when I did leave it, not a sign of any track 
showed itself, far or near. I thought I could find it, 
however, and pushed on, as I fancied, in the direction 
that had been pointed out to me. But, still, no road 
made its appearance, and, finally, in turning round to 
look for it, I forgot which way to set myself, on again 
starting. In fact I was lost, fairly lost. I had got 
into a wide cedar-swamp, the water in which was 



158 Nearly Lost in the Woods. 

only slightly frozen, so that I had to leap from the 
root of one tree to that of another. Not a sound 
was to be heard, nor a living creature to be seen. 
Only trees, trees, trees, black and unearthly in the 
lessening light. I hardly knew what to do. If forced 
to stay there all night, I might — indeed, I would likely 
— be frozen to death : but how to get out ? That I 
ultimately did, I know, but by no wisdom of mine. 
There was absolutely nothing to guide me. My 
deliverance was the merciful result of having by 
chance struck a slight track, which I forthwith fol- 
lowed, emerging at last, not, as I had hoped, some 
miles ahead, but a long way behind where I had 
entered. 



159 



CHAPTER IX. 

Involuntary racing — A backwoods parsonage — Graves in the 
wilderness — Notions of equality — Arctic winters — Ruffed 
grouse — Indian fishing in winter — A marriage — Our 
winter's pork. 

Among our occasional visitors, we had, one year, at 
one time, no fewer than three ministers, who chanced 
to be on some Home Missionary Society business in 
our quarter, and very nice company they were. 
Some of their stories of the adventures that befel 
them in their journeys amused us greatly. One was 
a stout, hearty Irishman, the two others Englishmen ; 
and what with the excitement of fresh scenes every 
day, and the healthy open air, of which they had 
perhaps too much, they were all in high spirits. At 
one part they had crossed a tract of very rolling 
land, where the road was all up one slope and down 
another, and this, as everything happened at the 
time to be one great sheet of ice, was no pleasant 
variety to their enjoyments. There was too little 
snow lor sleighing, and, yet, to ride down these 
treacherous descents in a wheeled conveyance, was 
impossible. At the top of an extra long one they had 
therefore determined, not only to get out, but to 
take the horses out, one of them leading them down, 



160 Involuntary Placing. 

while the other two brought down the vehicle. It 
was a large, double-seated affair, with four wheels, 
and a pole for two horses; and it was thought that 
the best plan to get it down safely was for one of the 
two to go to the tongue of the pole, in front, while 
the other held back behind. Everything thus 
arranged, at a given signal the first movement over 
the edge of the slope was made, and all went well 
enough for a few steps. But the worthy man be- 
hind soon felt that he had no power whatever, with 
such slippery footing, to retard the quickening speed 
of the wheels, while the stout Irishman, who chanced 
to be at the front, felt, no less surely, that he could 
neither let his pole go, nor keep it from driving him 
forward at a rate to which he was wholly unaccus- 
tomed. " Stop it, Brooks — I'll be killed ! — it'll 
be over me !" "I can't stop it," passed and re- 
passed in a moment, and, at last, poor Mr. Brooks's 
feet having gone from under him, the whole affair 
was consigned to his Irish friend, whom the increas- 
ing momentum of his charge was making fly down 
the hill at a most unclerical rate. " I'll be killed ! 
I'm sure it'll be over me !" was heard to rise from 
him as he dashed away into the hollow beneath. 
His two friends not only could do nothing to help 
him, but could not move for laughing, mixed with 
anxiety, till at last the sufferer managed to find re- 
lief when he had been carried a considerable way 
up the next slope. 



A Backwoods Parsonage. 161 

One of the three wore a contrivance over his fur 
cap in travelling which, so far as I have noticed, was 
unique. It was made of brown Berlin wool, much 
in the shape of one of the helmets of the Knights 
Templars, in the Temple Church, the only opening 
being for part of the face, while what you might 
call its tails hung down over his shoulders. He 
looked very much like one of the men in the dress 
for going down in a diving-bell when it was on him, 
his head standing out like a huge ball from his 
shoulders. Their entertainment was, it appeared, 
sometimes strange enough. One gave an account of 
a night he had spent in a backwoods parsonage, 
where the mice had run over his pillow all night, 
the only furniture in his room, besides the bed, being 
some pieces of bacon and a bit of cheese. He had 
had the only spare room in the house, in fact, which, 
in the absence of guests, served as a store-room. 
Nor was this the worst ; though it was in the depth 
of winter, he could see the stars through chinks of 
the roof as he lay, and snow having come on in 
the night, he found it lying deep on his coverlet 
when he awoke. What some clergymen suffer in 
the poorer districts must, indeed, be terrible. A 
touching thing about the one who could offer only 
such poor accommodation to a friend, was his point- 
ing to a little mound in the few feet of enclosure 
before his door, and saying that his only son, an 
infant, was buried there. The way in which graves 



162 Notions of Equality . 

are scattered up and down Canada is, indeed, one of 
the most affecting sights, as one passes. Churchyards 
are, of course, only found where population has ga- 
thered to some extent, and, hence, all who die in the 
first periods of settlement used to be buried on their 
own farms. Very often, in riding through old parts 
of the country, a little paling in the side of a field 
tells the story of some lonely grave. The Moslems 
who feel themselves about to die in the desert pass 
away with a parting prayer that the Eesurrection 
Angel may not forget their lonely resting-places at 
the last day. I have often thought that these patri- 
archs of the woods might have closed their life with 
the same petition. 

One of our visitors told us an amusing story of 
the notions of equality that everywhere prevailed. 
He had been visiting an old Canadian township, with 
his wife and a young lady, their friend, and found, 
when night came, that there was only one bed unoc- 
cupied, which was appropriated to himself and his 
wife. Their friend was, therefore, led away to an- 
other room in which there were two beds — one for 
the host and his wife, the other for the servant, and 
to this she was pointed, with the information that if 
she lay close she could find room at the girl's back. 
Not altogether relishing this arrangement, she made 
some excuse for returning to the " parlour," where 
she sat for a time, only coming to her sleeping-place 
when she could not help it. But that she should 



Arctic Winters. 163 

ever have hesitated in the matter seemed to all, alike, 
unaccountable, and, our visitor assured us, had so 
impressed their minds, that, a good while after, he 
learned that they still talked of it, and spoke of her 
pride as marking unusual depravity. 

In later years I was happy to make the acquain- 
tance, in one of the Canadian towns, of Captain 

L , who had commanded one of the expeditions 

in search of Sir John Franklin, and, in many con- 
versations with him, learned particulars of winter 
life in the more northern part of the American 
continent, which, in comparison, make that of Canada 
even inviting. To think of undressing, for eight 
months of the year, in these fearful regions, is out of 
the question. The dress, frozen stiff through the 
day, is thawed into soaking wetness by the heat of a 
snow -house at night, in which each sits as close to 
his neighbour as is possible, with no light but that 
of a miserable lamp, and imprisoned on every side 
by the heaped-up blocks of snow. In Canada, we 
can always get ourselves dried, whatever the wea- 
ther; but there, all alike, when not on board ship, 
are wet, month after month, each night through the 
winter. Happening one day to hear a boy whist- 
ling the negro song, " Old Uncle Ned," the captain 
stopped me with the question, " Where do you think 
I first heard that song?" Of course I told him I 
could not tell. " It was on a terrible night, in 
Prince Eegent's Inlet, when we were crossing it. 
m2 



164 Ruffed Grouse. 

The snow was falling very heavily, and the storm 
roaring through the hummocks, and I had called a 
halt behind a great piece of ice which offered a 
shelter. I thought we had better build a snow- 
house behind it and take refuge for the night. The 
men squatted down in this, I in their midst, all of 
us huddled together as close as possible, and, to keep 
up their spirits through the dismal hours, they began 
singing one thing after another, and that among the 
rest." This was worse than the encampments of 
surveyors, bad though they be. 

There was not a great deal of sport to be had, if 
we exclude the deer, in our neighbourhood. When 
we went out with our guns, the snow was generally 
marked by a good many squirrel tracks, and the 
woodpeckers were still to be seen, but game, properly 
so called, was not abundant. There was some how- 
ever, and we managed to get our proportion now and 
then for our table. One day, in passing a tree, 
I heard a sound something like that of a grouse 
rising, and on turning, to my astonishment, found it 
came from a bird like our partridges, which had 
lighted on a bough close at hand. A moment, and it 
was in a fair way for contributing to our dinner. 
These birds are in Canada called partridges, but 
their proper name is the ruffed grouse. When 
sprung, it flies with great vigour and with a loud 
whirring noise, sweeping to a considerable distance 
through the woods before it alights. The cock has a 



Ruffed Grouse. 165 

singular power of making a drumming noise with his 
wings, which, when heard in the silence of the woods, 
has a strange effect. Standing on an old fallen log, 
and inflating its whole body as a turkey-cock does, 
strutting and wheeling about with great stateliness, 
he presently begins to strike with his stiffened wings 
in short and quick strokes, which become more and 
more rapid until they run into each other, making 
the sound to which I allude. It is no doubt the way 
in which he pays his addresses to his mate, or calls 
her from a distance. They always perch in trees, 
delighting in the thick shade of the spruce or the 
pine, and are perfect models of stupidity, letting you 
get every advantage in your efforts to shoot them. I 
have known one sit, without attempting to stir, while 
a dog was getting frantic in his appeals at the tree 
foot that you should come and kill it. If your gun 
snap you may take your time, and, if necessary, may 
draw your charge and reload, without your victim 
moving. He will stand and gape at you during the 
whole process, even if your dog be barking and 
tearing a few yards below him. It is even said that 
you may bag a whole covey of them if you shoot the 
lowest first and go upwards. I myself have seen my 
brother, on coming on some of them when without 
his gun, run home perhaps half a mile for it, and 
find them still sitting where they were, when he came 
back, as if waiting to be shot. They are delicious 
eating, and so tender is their skin that you must not 



166 Indian Fishing in Winter. 

think of carrying them by the head, which would be 
sure to come off' with the weight of the body. 

One day, walking down the ice of the river, a 
curious appearance presented itself at some distance 
before me, like a brown heap, or mound, thrown 
up on the white surface. Making my way towards 
it, when about a hundred yards off, I thought I saw 
it move a little, and, halting for a moment, perceived 
that it really did so. I was half inclined to go home 
for my gun to make myself safe, when suddenly 
the head and shoulders of an Indian, raised from the 
edge of the buffalo skin, for such it was, dissijDated 
any alarm. Going up to him, I found he was em- 
ployed in fishing, and partly for protection, partly to 
keep the fish from being alarmed, had completely 
covered himself with the hide which had so attracted 
my attention. He had cut a hole through the two- 
feet-thick ice about a foot square, and sat with a 
bait hanging from one hand, while in the other he 
held a short spear to transfix any deluded victim 
which it might tempt to its destruction. The bait 
was an artificial fish of white wood, with leaden eyes 
and tin fins, and about eight or nine inches in length. 
He seemed rather annoyed at my disturbing him ; 
but on my giving him a small ball of twine I hap- 
pened to have with me we became good enough friends, 
and after a few minutes I left him. 

There was a marriage on the river the first winter 
we were there, which in some respects amused us. 



A Marriage. 167 

The bride was an elegant girl, of genteel manners ; 
and the bridegroom was a well-educated and very re- 

^able young man: but that either of them should 
have thought of marrying in such a state of poverty 
as was common to both was a thing to be thought of 
only in Canada. The bridegroom's wealth was, I 
believe, limited to some twenty pounds, and the 
bride brought for her portion fifty acres of land and 
some stock, which a relative gave her as a dowry. 
But money she had none, and even the shoes in 
which she went to be married, as I afterwards 
learned, had been borrowed from a married sister. 
Their future home was simply a dilapidated log- 
ise, which stood with its gable to the roadside, 
perhaps eight feet by eighteen, forming two apart- 
ments, an addition, which had once been intended 
to be made, so as to join the end next the road at 

: angles, but remained unfinished, being shut off 
door of thin deal, which, alone, kept the wind 
out at that corner. We crossed the ice to the 
American side to have the ceremony performed, after 
which there was a grand dinner, witl* true Canadian 
abundance, in her patron's house, in which, up 
to that time, she had had her home. Their own 
shanty not being as yet habitable, the young 
couple remained there till it was repaired, so 
as to let them move to it. But no money could 
be spent on the mansion ; whatever was to be done 
had to be done by the kind aid of amateurs, if any 



168 Primitive Furniture. 

Canadians deserve that name, whatever they may 
have to undertake. The chimney had to be rebuilt 
of mud, the walls caulked and filled up with mud, 
some panes of glass put in the two little windows, a 
wooden latch to be fitted to the thin deal that formed 
the outer door, and the whole had to be white- 
washed, after which all was pronounced ready. The 
furniture was as primitive as the house. A few 
dishes on a rude shelf, a pot or two, a few wooden 
chairs and a table, set off the one end ; while, in the 
other, an apology for a carpet, and a few better 
things — the faint traces of richer days in their 
fathers' houses — made up their parlour ; a wooden 
bench on the one side, ingeniously disguised as a 
sofa, reminding you of the couplet in Goldsmith's 
description of the village ale-house, where was seen 

" The chest, contrived a double debt to pay — 
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day." 

The produce of the fifty acres, which were mostly 
cleared, but which, having been the farm of an old 
French settler, were well nigh worn out for a time, 
and had wretched fences, was to be the support of 
the young housekeepers, though, less than a year 
before, the husband had been a student in one of the 
universities in Scotland. To have seen him when 
fairly installed in his agricultural honours, in a 
wretched straw hat, blue shirt, cotton trowsers, and 
heavy coarse boots, with a long blue beech rod in 
his hand, shouting to his oxen, it would hardly have 



Out Winter's For 7c > 169 

occurred to an old countryman that lie was anything 
but a labourer. I am thankful to say, however, that 
he ultimately escaped from the misery in which his 
imprudent marriage threatened to involve him, by 
getting into a pretty good mercantile situation, in 
which, I hope, he is now comfortably settled. I 
should have said, that, having no money with which to 
hire labour, all the work on his farm had to be done 
by his own hands, without any aid. The trifle he 
had at first, melted like snow, the two having set out 
with it to make a wedding-trip, in a sleigh, to a town 
seventy miles off, from which they returned with 
little but the empty purse. 

A little before Christmas a great time came on — 
the high solemnity of the annual pig-killing for the 
winter. It was bad enough for the poor swine, no 
doubt, but the human details were, in some respects, 
sufficiently ludicrous. The first year we got a man 
to do the killing, and a woman to manage the rest ; 
and, between them, with a razor-blade fixed into a 
piece of wood for a scraper, they won our admiration 
by their skill. I mention it only for an illustra- 
tion it afforded of the misery to which the poor 
Indians are often reduced in the winter. A band of 
them made their appearance almost as soon as we had 
begun, and hung round, for the sake of the entrails 
and other offal, till all was over. Of course we gave 
them good pieces, but they were hungry enough to 
have needed the whole, could we have spared it. As 



170 Sufferings of the Indians. 

soon as anything was thrown aside, there was a scram- 
ble of both men and women for it. Each, as soon as 
he had secured his share, twisted it round any piece 
of stick that lay near, and, after thrusting it for a 
minute into the fire, where the water was heating for 
scalding the pigs, devoured it greedily, filthy and 
loathsome as it was. They must often be in great 
want in the cold weather, when game is scarce. I 
was coming from the bush one morning when I saw 
an Indian tugging with all his might at something 
that lay in the middle of the road. On nearer ap- 
proach, it proved to be one of our pigs which had 
died of some disease during the night. The poor 
fellow had put his foot on its side, and was pulling 
with all his strength at the hind-leg to try to tear off 
the ham, but a pig's skin is very tough, and though 
he pulled at it till he had crossed and recrossed the 
road several times, he had to give up the battle at 
last, and leave it as he found it. A friend of mine 
who was lost in the woods for several days, and, in the 
end, owed his deliverance to his falling in with a few 
wigwams, told me that the Indians informed him 
that they were sometimes for three days together 
without food. 



171 



CHAPTER X. 

Our neighbours — Insect plagues — Military officers' families in 

the bush — An awkward mistake — Dr. D nearly shot 

for a bear — Major M — Our candles — Fortunate 

escape from a fatal accident. 

We used to have delightful evenings sometimes, when 
neighbouring settlers came to our house, or when we 
went to their houses. Scanty though the population 
was, we had lighted on a section of the country which 
had attracted a number of educated and intelligent 
men who, with their families, made capital society. 

Down the river we had Captain G , but he was 

little respected by reason of his irregular habits, 
which, however, might be partly accounted for by the 
effect on his brain of a fierce slash on the head which 
he had got at the storming of Ciudad Eodrigo. Then, 

above us, we had, about three miles off, Mr. E , 

an English gentleman-farmer, who had found his 
way to the backwoods, after losing much money from 
one cause or another. He was one of the church- 
wardens, and leader of the choir in the Episcopal 
chapel, as it was called, for there is no church es- 
tablishment in Canada; a man, moreover, of much 
general information, a good shot, and, what was better, 
a good Christian. He had always plenty of fresh 



172 Insect Plagues. 

London newspapers of the stiff Tory class, but 
acceptable to all alike in such a place as St. Clair. 
His house was at the foot of a steep bank, and as 

there were only himself and Mrs. R to occupy 

it, its size was not so striking as its neatness. A 
broad verandah ran along the side of it next the 
river, its green colour contrasting very pleasantly 
with the whiteness of the logs of the house. There 
were three apartments within ; one a sitting-room, 
the other two bedrooms, one of which was always at 
the disposal of a visitor. Over the mantelpiece hung 
a gun and a rifle, and on it stood, as its special orna- 
ment, a silver cup given by one of the English 
Cabinet Ministers as the prize in a shooting-match in 

B shire, and won by Mr. E . There was 

only one drawback to a visit to him, at least in sum- 
mer, and that was the certainty of your getting more 
than you bargained for in the insect way when you 
went into the barn to put up your horse. Fleas are 
wonderfully plentiful throughout Canada, but some 
parts are worse than others. A sandy soil seemed 
to breed them, as the mud of the Nile was once 

thought to breed worms, and Mr. R 's barn stood 

on a spot which the fleas themselves might have 
selected as a favourable site for a colony. Under 
the shelter of his sheds they multiplied to a wonderful 
extent. So incurable was the evil that it had come 
to be thought only a source of merriment. 

" Ah, you've been at the barn, have you ? ha, ha !" 



Insect Plagues. 173 

was all the pity you could get for any remark on the 
plentifulness of insect life in these quarters. " It 
isn't half so bad," he added one day, " as the preacher 
over the river who sat down at the doorstep of the 
chapel to look over his notes before service, and had 
hardly got into the pulpit before he found that a 
whole swarm of ants had got up his trousers. You 
may think how his hands went below the bookboard 
on each side of him, but it wouldn't do. He had to 
tell the congregation that he felt suddenly indisposed, 
and would be back in a few moments, which he took 
advantage of to turn the infested garment inside out 
behind the chapel, and after having freed them of his 
tormentors, went up to his post again, and got through 
in peace." 

" I don't think he was much worse off," struck in 
a friend, " than the ladies are with the grasshoppers. 
The horrid creatures, with their great hooky legs, 
and their jumping six feet at a time, make dreadful 
work when they take a notion of springing, just as 
folks are passing over them. I've seen them myself 
through a thin muslin dress making their way hither 
and thither in service-time, and there they must stay 
till all is over." 

But I am forgetting the list of our river friends. 

There were, besides Mr. B , four or Rye miles 

above us, Captain W , who had been flag-lieute- 
nant of a frigate off St. Helena while Bonaparte was 
a captive there, and had managed to preserve a lock 



174 Officers' Families in the Bush. 

of his soft, light brown hair; and Mr. L , bro- 
ther of one of our most eminent English judges, and 
himself once a midshipman under Captain Marryatt; 

and Post- Captain V and the clergyman — the 

farthest only ten miles off. There were, of course, 
plenty of others, but they were of a very different 
class — French Canadians, agricultural labourers 
turned farmers, and the like, with very little to 
attract in their society. 

The number of genteel families who had betaken 
themselves to Canada was, in those days, astonishing. 
The fact of the Governors being then mostly mili- 
tary men, who offered inducements to their old com- 
panions in arms who had not risen so high in rank 
as they, led to crowds of that class burying them- 
selves in the woods all over the province. I dare 
say they did well enough in a few instances, but in 
very many cases the experiment only brought rnisery 
upon themselves and their families. Brought up in 
ease, and unaccustomed to work with their hands, 
it was not to be expected that they could readily 
turn mere labourers, which, to be a farmer in Canada, 
is absolutely necessary. I was once benighted about 
forty miles from home, and found shelter for the 
night in a log-house on the roadside, where I shared 
a bed on the floor with two labourers, the man of 
the house and his wife sleeping at the other end of 
the room. After breakfast the next morning, in 
grand style, with cakes, " apple sauce" in platefuls, 



Officers' Families in the Bush. 175 

bread white as snow, meat, butter, cream, cheese, 
fritters, and colourless green tea of the very worst 
description, I asked them if they could get any con- 
veyance to take me home, as the roads were very 
heavy for travelling on foot, from the depth of the 
snow, and its slipperiness in the beaten track. They 
themselves, however, had none, but I was directed 

to Captain L 's, close at hand, where I was told 

I might find one. The house stood on a rising 
ground, which was perfectly bare, all the trees hav- 
ing been cut down for many acres round. There 
was not even the pretence of garden before the doors, 
nor any enclosure, but the great shapeless old log- 
house stood, in all its naked roughness, alone. Mrs. 
L , I found, was an elderly lady of elegant man- 
ners, and had seen a great deal of the world, having 
been abroad with her husband's regiment in the 
Mediterranean and elsewhere. She had met Sir 
Walter Scott at Malta, and was full of gossip about 
him and society generally in England and elsewhere. 
Her dress struck me on entering. It had once been 
a superb satin, but that was very many years before. 
There was hardly anything to be called furniture in 
the house, a few old wooden chairs, supplemented by 
some blocks of wood, mere cuts of trees, serving for 
seats, a great deal table, and a " grand piano !" which, 

Mrs. L told me, they bought at Vienna, forming 

all that could be seen. The very dog-irons on which 
their fire rested were broken. Overhead, I heard 



176 Officers' Families in the Bush. 

feet pattering on the loose open boards which formed 
the floor of some apartments, and was presently in- 
formed that " the dressing-room" of the Misses L 



was above, and that they would soon be down. 
Not an inch of carj)et, nor any ornament on the walls, 
nor anything, in fact, to take off the forlorn look of 
emptiness, was in the place; but the stateliness of 
language and manner on the part of the hostess was 
the same as if it had been a palace. After a time, a 
lad, the youngest of the household, made his appear- 
ance, and was informed of my wish to get on to 
Bidport as quickly as possible. He was introduced 
as having been born in Corfu, and as speaking Greek 
as fluently as English; but the poor fellow had a 
bad chance of ever making much use of his lin- 
guistic acquirements in such a place. The horse 
having to be caught, and a jumper to be " fixed," I 
had a long rest before setting out, and, in the mean- 
time, the sound of the axe, and of wooden pins 
being driven home, intimated that the vehicle was 

being manufactured. Captain L , it appeared, 

had come there in the idea that the country would 
soon be filled up, and that, in some magical way, the 
soil, covered though it was with trees, would yield 
him a living at once plentiful and easily procured. 
But years had passed on, the money got for his 
commission was spent, and the township round him 
was still almost a wilderness. From one step to 
another the family sank into the deepest want, until 



Officers Families in the Bush. 177 

Mrs. L was at last forced to try to get food, by 

making up the wreck of her former finery into caps 
and such like for the wives of the boors around, and 
hawking them about, till she could sell them for flour 
or potatoes. It could not have been expected that 
the captain could work like a labourer — he was 
totally unfit for it, and would have died over his task, 
or, at best, could have made no living; and, except 
the stripling who was to drive me, the family con- 
sisted only of daughters. One of these, however, 
shortly after my visit, actually managed to make an 
excellent marriage even in that horrible place; but 
there was a dash of the ludicrous even in the court- 
ship, from the pinching and straits to which their 
poverty subjected them. The suitor had not as yet 
declared himself, and the fact of his being a gentle- 
man by birth and education made his frequent visits 
only so much the more embarrassing. One day he 
had come in the forenoon, and stayed so long, that it 
was clear he had no intention of leaving before 
dinner, while there was literally nothing in the house 
but a few potatoes, which they could not of course 

offer him. What was to be done ? Mrs. L 

and the fair one, her eldest daughter, retired to a 
corner of the room to consult, and, lest anything 
should be overheard, they spoke in Italian, which 
they never dreamed of the suitor understanding. To 
his unspeakable amusement, the whole perplexity of 
the case forthwith proceeded to unfold itself in 
N 



178 An AzvJcward MistaJce. 

foreign syllables. " The nasty fellow, what in the 
world wont he go away for?" says the daughter; 
" look at him there, sitting like a fool when people 
are in such trouble. He ought to know that we have 
nothing in the pantry but a few horrid potatoes." 
And so forth. This was quite enough for the 
visitor. He suddenly recollected that he had another 
call to make, and their difficulty about him was over 
in a minute. But the marriage came off notwith- 
standing, and a handsome couple they made. 

After a time the sleigh was ready, such as it was — 
a rough box, on rough runners, close to the ground, 
with a piece of plank for a seat, and a bed-quilt for a 
wrapper; and late that night I got home, a half- 
sovereign and his expenses making the poor young 
fellow right glad I had chanced to come his way. 

One day I was much diverted by an incident 

narrated to me by Mr. B . " You know," said 

he, " Dr. D , from Toronto, was riding along in 

a sleigh yesterday on some business or other. You 
are aware he is very short and stout, and he had on a 
buffalo coat, and a great fur cap. Well, down goes 
his horse, its feet balled with the snow, I suppose ; 
and there it lay, helpless, on its side, under the 
shafts. It was pretty near old John Thompson's, the 
Scotchman. Out gets the doctor to help his poor 
horse by unbuckling its straps and so on, and, being 
very short-sighted, he had to get down his face 
almost on it. Jus; at this time, Mrs. Thompson 



Marriages in the Bush. 179 

chanced to come to the door, and there was this 
apparition, in the distance, in the middle of the road. 
She instantly made up her mind what it was. ' Eh, 
John, John, bring your gun ; here's a bear devoorin' 
a horse!' But they didn't shoot the doctor after all, 
for the old man found out in time who it was." 

But I have to say a little more about some of the 
marriages in our neighbourhood, or not far from it. 
You may easily suppose that it is not every one who 

is so lucky as Miss L , of whom I have spoken. 

Those of both sexes who made poor matches were 
much more numerous in those early days. There was 

Kate S , the daughter of a captain in the army, 

an elegant girl, who, for want, I suppose, of any 
other suitor, married a great coarse clown, whom her 
father, had he been living then, would hardly have 
taken to work for them. When he died, she married 
another, his fellow, and ended, on his dying, by 
taking, as her third husband, a working tailor, with 

three or four children. There was Major M , 

who had come to the country about the same time as 

Captain L ; nothing could be more wretched 

than the appearance of his house on the road-side, 
with the great trees almost close to it, himself an 
elderly man, and his only children two daughters. 
I remember passing on horseback one frightful 
morning, when the roads were at the worst, and 
finding him on the top of a prostrate log, trying to 
cut off enough for his fire. His daughter finally 
n2 



180 Scarcity of Candles. 

married a small tradesman in a neighbouring town ; 
and the major thankfully went to close his days with 
his son-in-law, in far greater comfort than he had 
known for a long time. Young fellows married girls 
whom their mothers would hardly have taken for 
servants in England ; partly, I suppose, because there 
were not in some parts many to choose from, and 
partly, no doubt, because their position as farm- 
labourers, which they had really come to be, had 
lowered their tastes. I remember seeing a young 
man come out of a village tavern with a short black 
pipe in his mouth, a long beech rod in his hand, and 
a blue blouse, surmounted by a wretched straw hat, 
for his dress, his whole appearance no better than 
that of any labourer round. He was driving 
an ox- waggon, but, before starting, a lady at my 
side in the stage, which had stopped at the tavern, 
accosted him, and they entered freely into conversa- 
tion together. He turned out to be a son of 

Colonel , who lived in a wretched log-hut not 

far distant. He told his friend that he hoped to get 
a good berth that summer as purser on one of the 
small lake steamers; and I hope he succeeded. 
Meanwhile, he was mixing with the herd of " bush- 
whackers," as Canadians say, at the tavern fire, 
himself almost one of them. 

We had one drawback in the long winter nights — 
there was often a great scarcity of candles. One was 
lighted at supper, but it was put out immediately 



Air-holes in the Ice. 181 

after the meal; and we had to sit at the light of the fire, 
which we made as bright as possible by a supply of 
resinous pine, from time to time. We, sometimes, 
had enough of candles, indeed, but I think we were 
more often without them. Some lard in a saucer, 
with a piece of rag for a wick, was one of our plans 
in addition to the pine, when we wished to see our 
way to our beds. 

There was very nearly a fatal accident down the 
river one day, occasioned by a sleigh, and the folks in 
it, with the horses as well, breaking through an air- 
hole in the ice, that is, a spot at which the air 
imprisoned below the ice had found its escape, 
leaving the surface only very slightly frozen. How 
they got out I hardly know, but the ice round the 
hole was quite strong ; and after one of the party 
had clambered upon it he managed to fish out the 
rest, who had clung to the sleigh. Even the horses 
were saved ; but the method taken with them seemed 
to me as hazardous as it was strange : ropes were 
passed round their necks as quickly as possible, and 
when by this means they were half choked, they 
floated so high that they were got out with com- 
parative ease. 



182 



CHAPTEE XI. 

"Now Spring returns" — Sugar-making — Bush psalmody — 
Bush preaching — Worship under difficulties — A clerical 
Mrs. Partington — Biology — A ghost — "It slips good" — 
Squatters. 

By the middle of March the sun had begun, in the 
very open places, to show some power, especially in 
the little spots sheltered from the cold by the woods, 
where his beams found an entrance to the soil. 
Here and there, traces of the bare earth began to re- 
appear, and the green points of the succulent plants 
were preparing to burst out into their first leaves; 
the buds, too, on some of the trees, were distinctly 
visible, but there was a long time still before us 
between these first promises of spring and their 
actual realization. The last snowfall came in the 
middle of April, and, between that time and the first 
of May, the weather could hardly be said to be settled 
into spring. But already, towards the third week of 
March, the birds had made up their minds to come 
back to us, in expectation of the opening leaf. Flocks 
of blue jays, in their beautiful plumage, blue set off 
with white and black, fiitted from the top of one of 
the lower trees to another, chattering incessantly. 
Everything had been desolate around us for long, 



Sugar-making . 183 

and now to see sncli signs of returning warmth and 
verdure was unspeakably delightful. 

With the first opening of spring, and while vet the 
snow lay thick in the fields and the woods, the 
season of maple sugar-making commenced. It 
seemed extraordinary to me for a long time that 
sugar should be got in quantities from a great forest 
tree, the modest sugar-cane having been always in 
my mind the only source of it — except, indeed, the 
sugar-beet, by the growth of which Xapoleon tried 
to make France furnish her own sugar, instead of 
having to buy English colonial sugar from any of 
the European ports. But a great quantity is made, 
in Canada and the United States, from the maple, 
both for sale and home use, a vast amount being 
eaten bv the native-born Canadians as a sweetmeat, 
just as we eat candy ; and very little else is known 
in many parts of the backwoods for household pur- 
poses. The best days for sugar-making are the 
bright ones, after frosty- nights, the sap running then 
most freely. The first thing we had to do with our 
"bush," which is the name given to the maples pre- 
served for sugar-making, was to see that each tree 
was provided with a trough, which we made out of 
pine, or some other soil wood, by cutting a log into 
lengths of perhaps two feet, then splitting each 
in two, and hollowing the flat side so that it would 
hold about a bucketful of sap. We next took narrow 
pieces of wood about a foot long, and made spouts 



1 84 Sugar -making. 

of them with a gouge, after which we made a cut in 
each tree, with the axe, three or four inches long and 
an inch deep, in a slanting direction, adding another 
straight cut at the lower end of it with the gouge, 
that there might be no leaking, and sinking a hole for 
a spout, where they met ; the gouge that cut the spouts 
making the hole into which they were thrust. Below 
these spouts the troughs were set to collect the sap, 
which was carried as often as they were nearly full 
to another, of enormous dimensions, close to the fire. 
These colossal troughs are simply huge trunks of 
trees hollowed out for the purpose ; ours would have 
held fifty barrels. The emptying into this was made 
every morning and evening until a large quantity 
had been gathered, and then the boiling began in 
large "kettles," as they are called, made for the 
purpose, and suspended over the blazing fire from a 
stout pole, resting on two forked branches thrust into 
the earth at each side. The sap once in the kettles 
has a hard time of it : the fires are kept up in royal 
brightness for days together, not being allowed to die 
out even during the night. 

It was a very pleasant time with us, though it was 
hard work, and what with the white snow, the great 
solemn trees, the wild figures dancing hither and 
thither, and our loud merriment, it was very striking 
when the evenings had set in. One of the kettles 
was chosen for " sugaring off," and had especially 
assiduous watching. Not a moment's rest could its 



Sugar-maldng. 185 

unfortunate contents get from the incessant boiling 
we kept up ; fresh sap being added as often as it 
seemed to be getting too dry. In its rage, the sap 
would every now and then make desperate efforts to 
boil over ; but we were on the watch for this also, 
and as soon as it manifested any intention of the 
kind, we rubbed round the inside of the kettle with a 
piece of pork-fat, beyond the limits of which it would 
no more pass than if it had been inside some magic 
circle. My sisters were as busy as we at every part of 
the process, and their poor dresses showed abundant 
and lasting memorials of their labours, in the rents 
made in them by the bushes. What we were all like, 
from head to foot, after a time, may be more easily 
conceived than described. Our smudged faces, and 
sugary, sloppy clothes, made us all laugh at one 
another. 

As the sap grew thicker with the incessant boiling, 
another element was added to our amusement in the 
stickiness of everything we handled. If we leaned 
against a log at hand we were fast bound ; and the 
pots, pans, ladles, buckets, axe-handles, troughs — 
everything we touched, indeed, seemed to part from 
us only with regret. We were fortunate in having 
no young children amongst us, as they would, of 
course, have been in the thick of the fray, and have 
become half-crystallized before all was over. The 
11 clearing off" was managed by pouring in beaten 
eggs when the sap was beginning to get thick. This 



186 Sugar -niakirg. 

served to bring all the impurities at once to the top, so 
that we could readily skim them off. Several ingenious 
ways had been told us of knowing when the process 
was complete. One was by boring small holes in a 
flat piece of wood, and blowing on it after dipping it 
into the syrup ; the sugar going through the holes in 
long bubbles, if it were boiled enough. Another 
plan was to put a little on the snow, when, if it got 
stiff, it was time to pour all out. Everything that 
would hold it was then, forthwith, put into requi- 
sition, after having been well greased to keep 
the sugar from sticking, and, presently, we had cakes, 
loaves, lumps, blocks, every shape, in fact, of rich 
brown-coloured sugar of our own making. Some, 
which we wanted to crystallize, was put into a barrel, 
and stirred while cooling, which effectually answered 
the purpose. Small holes bored in the bottom made 
the sugar thus obtained whiter than the rest, by al- 
lowing the molasses mingled with it to drain off. We 
kept some sap for vinegar, which we made by simply 
boiling three or four pailfuls until reduced to one, 
and corking this up in a keg for a time. 

For the first and second years the poorer settlers 
have a dreadful job of it in the sugar bush, from not 
having had sufficient time to fence it in from the 
cattle, which from their intrusion are a constant 
annoyance. They poke their great noses into every- 
thing, and one taste of the sap is very much to them 
what they say the taste of blood is to a tiger, in 



Sugar -making. 187 

stimulating their thirst for more. In they come, 
braving all risks for a sip of their much-loved nectar ; 
out go the spouts from the trees, over go the 
buckets of sap, and, worse than all, if the brutes suc- 
ceed in drinking any quantity, they are very often 
seriously, if not mortally injured, their indulgence 
acting on them very much as clover does, blowing 
out their stomachs and even bursting them. Another 
annoyance at first, is the not having had time to cut 
out the " under brush," so as to make it possible to 
take a sleigh with barrels on it, from tree to tree, to 
collect the sap, with the help of oxen, and, hence, 
having to carry bucket by bucket to the "kettles," often 
from a considerable distance, which is no trifling task, 
over wet snow, and rough ground, thick with every 
obstruction. TTe were fortunate in this respect, 
having been warned in time, so that everything was 
as light as such work can be. 

The sugaring- off day was rather a festivity with 
us, as we followed the custom of a good many of our 
neighbours, and invited some young folks to come to 
a carnival on the warm sugar, which is very nice, 
though I should not care to eat as much at a time as 
some of our visitors did. The quantity of sap which 
a single tree yields is astonishing. I think some 
gave not less than fifty gallons, and the loss of it 
seemed to do them good rather than harm. The 
older and stronger the trees the better the sap, and 
the more abundant — a peculiarity which it would be 



188 BusJi Psalmody. 

well for each of us to be able to have said of his own 
life as it advanced. The Indians must have been 
acquainted with the property of the maple for ages; 
stone sugar-making utensils, of their manufacture, 
comprising stone troughs and long stone spouts, hol- 
lowed out and pointed for sticking into the trees, hav- 
ing often been found in some districts. The few who 
still survive keep up the habits of their ancestors in 
this, as in other respects, numbers of them offering 
sugar which they have made, for barter, each spring. 
Happening to be back in the bush one Sunday, I 
stopped to hear the Presbyterian minister preach ; 
he being expected to come there that afternoon. A 
log schoolhouse was made to serve for a chapel — a 
dark, wr etched affair, into which, gradually, about 
seventy or eighty people managed to cram them- 
selves. The singing was conducted by an old 
German, whose notions of music were certainly far 
behind those of his countrymen generally. The 
number of grace notes he threw in was astound- 
ing; but the people joined as well as they could, 
using their powerful lungs with so much vigour, and 
in such bad time and tune, as to be irresistibly 
ludicrous. As to keeping abreast of each other 
through a verse or a line, it seemed never to occur 
to them. A great fellow would roar himself out of 
breath, with his face up to the ceiling and his mouth 
open, like a hen drinking, and then stop, make a 
swallow to recover himself, or, perhaps, spit on the 



Worship under Difficulties. 189 

floor, and begin again where he left off, in total dis- 
regard of the fact that the others were half a line 
ahead. Who can chronicle the number of " repeats" 
of each line, or portion of one? And as to the 
articulation of the words, who could have guessed 
their meaning from the uncouth sounds he heard ? 
The windows were very small ; and, when filled with 
people, the place was too dark for print to be legible, 
so that, notwithstanding the excessive cold, the 
minister had to stand outside the door through the 
whole service. About the middle of the sermon 
a brief interruption took place, from a freak on the 
part of the stove, which stood in the middle of 
the room, and was of the common kind, with the 
sides held together by a raised edge on the top and 
bottom. As usual in all Canadian churches and 
meetings, some one was stuffing this contrivance full 
of wood while the sermon was going on, when, in a 
moment, the top got a trifle too much lifted up, and 
down came stove-pipe, stove, fire and wood, in one 
grand rumble, to the ground. As the floor chanced 
to be made only of roughly-smoothed planks, with 
great gaps between each, and the carpenters' shavings 
and other inflammable matter were clearly visible 
below, the danger of the whole structure catching 
fire was great ; but the congregation were equal to 
the emergency. A number of men were out in a 
moment, to return, the next, with great armfuls of 
snow, which they heaped on the burning mound in 



190 TFors/iip under Difficulties. 

such profusion that every spark of fire was extin- 
guished in a few minutes. The bottom of the stove 
was then prepared again for the reception of the 
sides, the top was once more fitted on, the stove- 
pipes put in their place, the rubbish thrust into its 
proper abode inside, and, by the help of a few whit- 
tlings made on the spot, a fresh fire was roaring in a 
very short time, enabling the minister to conclude in 
peace and comfort. 

I have seen strange incidents in backwoods wor- 
ship. One church happened to be built on rather 
high posts, leaving an open space of from two to 
three feet below, between the floor and the ground. 
Into this shady retreat a flock of sheep, headed by 
the bell-wether, had made its entrance one Sunday 
morning while we were at worship overhead, and 
presently tinkle, tinkle, tinkle went the bell, now in 
single sounds, and then, when the wearer perhaps 
shook some fly off its ears, in a rapid volley. No- 
body stirred. The clergyman alone seemed incom- 
moded ; but no one thought he was particularly so 
till, all at once, he stopped, came down from the 
pulpit, went out and drove off the intruders, after 
which he recommenced as if nothing had occurred. 
At another place, at the communion, to my astonish- 
ment, instead of the ordinary service, a black bottle 
and two tumblers were brought out, with all due 
solemnity, as substitutes. 
. We had a sample of the strength of female intellect, 



A Clerical Mrs. Tartington. 191 

one winter, in an old woman, who visited the next 
village to preach on the Prophecies, and drew the 
whole of the humbler population of the neighbour- 
hood to hear her. Grammar, of course, was utterly 
disregarded ; she knew the obscurer books of 
Scripture by heart, and, having a tongue more 
than usually voluble, and an assurance that nothing 
could abash, she did her best to enlighten the 
crowd on no mean topics. Using her left arm as 
a chronological measure, she started, with Daniel, at 
the elbow, and reached the consummation of all 
things at her finger-ends, which she figuratively 
called " the jumping-off place." Some of her 
similes, as reported through the township, amused 
me exceedingly as samples of what was just suited 
to please the majority of her hearers. " There's no 
more grace, sir, in your heart than there's blood in 
a turnip," was her apostrophe to some imaginary 
sinner. " Them sinners," she added — " them 
hardened sinners, needs to be done to as you do to 
a old black tobaky pipe — throw 'em into the fire, and 
burn 'em — then they'll be wife." Such wandering 
luminaries are, for the most part, importations from 
the States, where they abound almost beyond belief. 
Another of these learned expositors visited us for 
the purpose of giving lectures on " Biology," by 
which he meant the effects produced on his patients 
by looking at large wooden buttons which he carried 
with him ; a continued stare at them for a time 



192 Biology. 

making the parties become, as he averred, completely 
subject, even in their thoughts, to his will. He 
would tell one he was a pig, and all manner of 
swinish sounds and actions followed. Another was 
assured he could not rise from his seat, and forth- 
with appeared glued to the spot, despite his most 
violent efforts to get up. Whether there was any 
actual truth in the exhibition, through the power of 
some subtle mesmeric laws of which we know little, 
I cannot say. Some thought there was ; others, 
that the whole was a joke of some young fellows who 
wished to create fun at the expense of the audiences. 
But the exhibitor himself was a real curiosity in his 
utter illiterateness and matchless assurance. He had 
seen somebody else exhibiting in this way, and, like 
a shrewd Yankee, thought he might make a little 
money by doing the same. I wished to gain some 
information from him on the subject, if he had any 
to give, and waited, after the crowd had separated, to 
ask him about it; but all I could get from him was 
the frank acknowledgment that " this here profession 
was not the one he follered; he had jist been 
a-coming to Canedy after some lumber — he dealt in 
lumber, he did — and calc'lated that he might as well's 
no make his expenses by a few licturs." I almost 
laughed outright at this candid avowal, and left him. 
One day, Louis de Blanc, an old Canadian voyageur, 
who had left his arduous avocation and settled near 
our place long before we came, amused me by a story 



A G/iost. 193 

of an apparition he had seen the night before in pass- 
ing the graveyard at the little Catholic chapel on the 
roadside, two miles above us. It was a little plot of 
ground, neatly fenced round with wooden pickets, 
with the wild flowers growing rank and high among 
the few lonely graves, — some tall black crosses here 
and there outtopping them. " You know Michel 
Cauchon died last week ; well, he always had a spite 
at me ; and, sure enough, last night about twelve 
o'clock, as I was passing the churchyard, didn't I see 
his ghost running across the road in the shape of a 
rabbit. Ah ! how I sweated as I ran home ! I never 
stopped till I got over my fence and safe in bed." 
The poor rabbit that had caused the panic would, no 
doubt, have been astonished, could it have learned 
the terror it had inspired. 

It was most astonishing to see what kind of food 
some of these old Canadians relished — at least, it was 
so to me. One day having gone over to Le Blanc's 
on some errand, I found his son Louis, a boy of 
twelve or fourteen, with the handle of a frying-pan in 
one hand and a spoon in the other, drinking down 
mouthful after mouthful of the melted fat left after 
frying pork, and, on my silently looking at him, was 
met by a delighted smile and a smack of his lips, 
accompanied by a rapturous assurance of, " Ah ! it 
slips good." Fat, however, is only another name for 
carbon, or, it may be said, charcoal, and carbon is 
needed in large quantities to maintain an adequate 
o 



194 " It slijjs goody 

amount of animal heat in the inhabitants of cold 
climates, and to this must be attributed their craving 
for grossly fat food. Captain Cochrane, in his " Pe- 
destrian Tour to Behring's Straits," shows us that 
poor Louis Le Blanc was in this respect far outdone 
by the Siberian tribes living near the Arctic Ocean, 
who relished nothing more than a tallow candle, and 
would prolong the enjoyment of one by pulling the 
wick, once and again, through their half- closed teeth, 
that no particle of the grease might be lost. Indeed, 

my friend Captain L told me that, in the Arctic 

regions, his men had acquired a similar relish for 
" moulds" and " dips," and could eat a candle as if it 
had been sugar-stick. The Esquimaux, as we all 
know, live on the nauseous blubber of the whale, 
cutting it off in long strips, which, Sydney Smith 
facetiously avers, they hold over them by the one 
hand and guide down by the other, till full to the 
mouth, when they cut it off at the lips. The quantity of 
butcher's meat eaten by every one during winter in 
Canada is astonishing. Even the bush people, who 
when living in England hardly ever saw it, eat it 
voraciously three times a-day, with a liberal allow- 
ance of grease each time. What oceans of mutton- 
oil I have seen floating round chops, in some of their 
houses ! How often have I declined the offer of 
three or four tablespoonfuls of pork-oil, as " gravy" 
or u sauce" to the pork itself! Yet it " slips good," 
apparently, with the country population generally. 



Squatters. 195 

The quantity of butter these good folks consume is 
no less liberal. On the table of a poor log-house 
they never think of putting down a lump weighing 
less than a pound, at which every one hacks as he 
likes with his own knife. But they need it all, and 
it is a mercy they have it, to help them to withstand 
the effects of extreme cold and hard work. The 
poorer classes in towns, who have no land on which 
to raise animal food, and little money with which to 
buy it, must suffer very severely. 

There were a few " squatters'' along the river here 
and there — that is, men who had settled on spots of 
the wilderness without having bought them, or hav- 
ing acquired any legal rights, but were content to use 
them while undisturbed in possession, and to leave 
their clearings when owners came forward. They are 
always, in such cases, allowed the value of their im- 
provements, and as, meanwhile, they live entirely rent 
free, their position is far from wholly disadvantageous. 
In the early days of the colony, indeed, there was no 
other plan. The few first comers could hardly be any- 
thing but squatters, as the country was all alike an 
uncleared wilderness, and there was no inducement to 
pay money for any one spot, had they possessed the 
means. Some of the French families in our neigh- 
bourhood had been settled on the same farm for 
generations, and had at last actually bought their 
homesteads at the nominal price demanded by 
government ; but the squatters were not yet extinct, 
o2 



196 Squatters. 

though they might at one time have had their choice 
of the richest soil at something like fourpence an 
acre. A friend of mine told me that within a period 
of about thirty years he had seen land sold again and 
again at no higher price. On the same lot as that 
which boasted the Catholic chapel, one — a lonely 
survivor of the class — had taken up his abode, many 
years before our time, building a log-house for him- 
self on the smallest possible scale, a few yards from 
the river. How he could live in such a place seemed 
strange. It was not more than some ten or twelve 
feet in length, and the upper part of it was used as 
his barn. Here, all alone, poor Papineau had lived 
— no one I ever met could tell how long. There 
was no house or building in sight; no one ever 
seemed to go near him, nor did he ever visit any 
neighbour. He was his own cook, housekeeper^ 
washerwoman, farm-labourer, everything. I often 
wish I had tried to find out more about him. We 
used, when we passed along the river edge, to see him 
mowing his patch of hay for his cow, or weeding his 
plot of tobacco, for he grew what he required for his 
own use of this as of other things ; and he was always 
the same silent, harmless hermit of the woods. It 
was a strange kind of life to lead. How different 
from that of a Londoner, or the life of the inhabi- 
tant of any large community ! Yet he must surely 
have been contented, otherwise he would have left it 
and gone where he could have found some society. 



197 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Bush magistrates — Indian forest guides — Senses quickened 
by necessity — Breaking up of the ice — Depth of the frost — 
A grave in winter — A ball — A holiday coat. 

In those days our local dignitaries were as primitive 
as the country itself. On the river, indeed, the ma- 
gistrates were men of education, but in the bush the 
majority possessed no qualifications for acting the 
part of justices. One of them had the misfortune 
one winter to have a favourite dog killed by some 
mischievous person, and feeling excessively indig- 
nant at the loss, boldly announced that he was pre- 
pared to pay a reward to any party who would give 
such information respecting the offender as should 
lead to his conviction. The wording and spelling of 
this proclamation were alike remarkable. It ran 
thus : " Whereas sum nutrishus vilain or vilains has 
killed my dog Seesur, I ereby ofer a reward of five 
dolars to any one that will mak none the ofender or 
ofenders." He never got any benefit from his efforts, 
but the document, in his own handwriting, hung for 
a long time on the wall of the next tavern, where all 
could see it, and not a few laugh at its peculiarities. 
I was much struck by an instance, which a long 



198 Indian Forest Guides. 

journey, about this time, through the woods, gave, of 
the wonderful faculty possessed by the Indians in 
going straight from point to point across the thickest 
forest, where there is apparently nothing to direct 
their course. Having occasion to return nearly 
twenty miles from a back township to which the 
roads had not yet been opened, and not liking to take 
the circuit necessary if I desired to find others, I 
thought myself fortunate in meeting with an Indian, 
who for a small reward offered to take me home by 
the nearest route. When I asked him how he guided 
himself, he could say very little, but hinted in his 
broken English about one side of the trees being 
rougher than the other, though I could detect little 
or no difference on most of them. If it had been 
in Nova Scotia, I could have understood his rea- 
soning, for there the side of the trees towards the 
north is generally hung with a long grey beard of 
moss, from the constant moisture of the climate ; but 
in Canada it would take very sharp eyes to tell which 
was the northern and which the other sides from any 
outward sign. They must have something more to 
guide them, I think, though what it is I cannot con- 
ceive. The senses become wonderfully acute when 
called into extraordinary service. I have read of 
prisoners in dark dungeons who got at last to be able 
to see the spiders moving about in their webs in the 
corners of their cells ; and blind people often attain 
such a wonderful delicacy of touch as to be able to 



Senses quickened ly necessity. 199 

detect things by differences so slight as to be imper- 
ceptible by others. The facility with which they 
read the books prepared for them with raised letters, 
by simply passing their fingers over the surfaces, is 
well known. The sailor can discern the appearance 
of distant land, or the Arab the approach of a camel 
over the desert, when others would suspect neither. 
An Indian can smell the fire of a" camp," as they 
call the place where a party rests for the night, when 
a European can detect nothing. There may, there- 
fore, be something which can be noticed on the trees, 
by those who pass their whole lives among them, 
which others are unable to discover. The Indians 
derive a great advantage from the skill they possess 
in tracking the footsteps of men or animals over all 
sorts of ground and among dry leaves. This faculty 
they are enabled to acquire owing to the fact that the 
forests in North America are generally open enough 
underneath to offer easy passage ; and moreover, that 
the soil is little more on the surface than a carpet of 
rotten wood and decaying leaves, which easily re- 
ceives the impression of footsteps, and retains it for 
a length of time. The moss on the fallen trees is 
another great help in tracking the course of either 
man or beast through the forest ; for neither the one 
nor the other can well make their way over them 
without rubbing off portions here and there. Nor is 
the mere fact of the passage in a particular direction 
all that an Indian can detect from the traces on the 



200 Breaking njo of the Ice. 

soil or vegetation. They reason acutely from things 
which others would overlook, and sometimes surprise 
one as much by the minute and yet correct conclu- 
sions they draw respecting what they have not seen, 
as the Arab did the Cadi of Bagdad when he de- 
scribed a camel and its load which had passed, and 
whose track he had seen; maintaining that the camel 
was lame of a foot — because he had noticed a dif- 
ference in the length of the steps ; that it wanted a 
tooth, because the herbage it had cropped had a piece 
left in the middle of each bite ; and, also, that the load 
consisted of honey on one side and ghee on the other, 
because he had noticed drops of each on the path as 
he went along. My Indian made no hesitation at 
any part of our journey, keeping as straight as pos- 
sible, and yet he was forced perpetually to wind and 
turn round trees standing directly in our path, and 
to vault over fallen logs, which he did with a skill 
that I in vain tried to imitate. 

About the beginning of April the ice in the river 
was getting very watery, the strength of the sun 
melting the surface till it lay covered with pools in 
every direction. Yet people persisted in crossing, 
long after I should have thought it dangerous in the 
extreme. It seemed as if it would hold together for 
a long time yet, but the heat was silently doing its 
work on it, and bringing the hour of its final disap- 
pearance every moment nearer. It had become a 
wearisome sight when looked at day after day for 



Breaking up of the Ice. 201 

months, and we all longed for the open river once 
more. At last, about the sixteenth of the month, on 
rising in the morning, to our delight, the whole sur- 
face of the ice was seen to be broken to pieces. A 
strong wind which had been blowing through the 
night had caused such a motion in the water as to 
split up into fragments the now- weakened sheet that 
bound it. It was a wonderfully beautiful sight to look 
at the bright blue water sparkling once more in the 
light, as if in restless gladness after its long imprison- 
ment, the richness of its colour contrasting strikingly 
with the whiteness of the ice which floated in snowy 
floes to the south. At first there was only the broken 
covering of the river, but, very soon, immense quan- 
tities of ice came sailing down from the Upper Lakes, 
jammed together one piece on another, in immense 
heaps, in every variety of confusion, the upturned 
edges fringed with prismatic colours. I found 
that the preparation for this grand upbreaking had 
been much more complete than I had suspected, 
from looking at it from a distance ; the whole of what 
had appeared quite solid having been so affected by 
the sun that, whichever way you looked at it, long 
rows of air-bubbles showed themselves through it, 
showing that there was little power left in it to resist 
any outward force. The final rupture, though appa- 
rently so sudden, had been in fact steadily progressing, 
until, at last, the night's storm had been sufficient to 
sweep away in an hour what had previously stood 



202 Depth of the Frost. 

the wildest rage of winter. I have often, since, thought 
that it gave a very good illustration of the gradually 
increasing influence of all efforts for good, and of 
their certain ultimate triumph — each day's faithful 
work doing so much towards it, though the progress 
may for long be imperceptible, until at last, when we 
hardly expect it, the opposing forces give way, as it 
were, at once, and forthwith leave only a scattered 
and retreating wreck behind. Gradual preparation, 
and apparently sudden results, are the law in all 
things. The Reformation, though accomplished as if 
at a blow, had been silently made possible through 
long previous generations ; and when the idolaters in 
Tahiti threw away their hideous gods, the salutary 
change was only effected by the long-continued labours 
of faithful missionaries for many years before — 
labours, which, to many, must, at the time, have 
seemed fruitless and vain. 

The depth to which the frost had penetrated the 
ground was amazing. I had already seen proof of 
its being pretty deep, on the occasion of a grave 
having to be dug in a little spot of ground attached 
to a chapel at some distance from us, for the burial 
of a poor neighbour's wife who had died. The 
ground was deeply covered with snow, which had to 
be cleared away before they could begin to dig the 
grave, and the soil was then found to be so hard that 
it had to be broken up with pickaxes. Even in that 
earlier part of the winter the frost was nearly two 



A Grave in Winter. 203 

feet deep, and it was a touching thing to see the frozen 
lumps of earth which had to be thrown down on the 
coffin. Anything like beating the grave smooth, or 
shaping it into the humble mound which is so familiar 
to us at home, as the token of a form like our own 
lying beneath, was impossible ; there could only be 
a rough approach to it till spring should come to 
loosen the iron-bound earth. Strangely enough, 
there were two funerals from the same household 
within the same month, and the two graves were 
made side by side. The mother had died just as she 
was about to start for the house of her daughter-in- 
law who was ailing, a hundred and twenty miles off, 
and the object of her beautiful tenderness had herself 
died before the same month had expired, leaving it 
as her last wish that she should be laid beside her 
friend who had departed so lately. It was now the 
depth of winter — the Arctic cold made everything 
like rock — the sleighing was at its best, and thus the 
journey was made comparatively easy. Laying the 
coffin in a long sleigh and covering it with straw, 
and taking a woman with him to carry a young 
infant to his friends to nurse, the husband set out 
"with his ghastly load. There was no fear of delaying 
the burial too long, for the corpse was frozen stiff, 
and might have been kept above ground for weeks 
without the risk of its thawing. When I used to 
pass afterwards in summer time, the two graves, 
which were the first in the burial-ground, wore a 



204 Depth of the Frost. 

more cheerful aspect than they had done at first ; the 
long beautiful grass waving softly over them, and 
wild flowers borne thither by the winds or by birds, 
mingling their rich colours with the shades of green 
around. 

I think the soil must eventually have been frozen 
at least a yard down, if we may judge by its effects. 
Great gate-posts were heaved up by the expansion of 
the earth, when the thaw turned the ice into water; 
for, though ice is lighter than water, it forms a solid 
mass, whereas the swelling moisture pushes the par- 
ticles of earth apart. I have seen houses and walls 
cracked from top to bottom, and fences thrown down, 
from the same cause; indeed, it is one of the regu- 
larly recurring troubles of a Canadian farmer's year. 
If anything is to stand permanently, the foundations 
must be sunk below the reach of the frost. It is 
very much better, however, in Canada than in the 
icy wilderness to the north of it. Bound Hudson's 
Bay the soil never thaws completely, so that if you 
thrust a pole into the earth in the warm season, you 
may feel the frozen ground a few feet beneath. It is 
wonderful that any vegetation can grow under such 
circumstances, but the heat of the sun is so great 
that, even over the everlasting ice-bed, some crops 
can be raised in the short fiery summer. Indeed, 
even on the edge of the great Arctic Ocean, along 
the coasts of Siberia, and on some spots of the 
American shore, the earth brought down by rivers 



A Ball. 205 

and strewn by their floods over the hills of ice, is 
bright with vegetation for a short part of each year 
— in this respect not unlike stony and cold natures 
which have yet, over their unmelting hardness, an 
efflorescence of good — the skin of virtue spread, as 
old Thomas Fuller says, like a mask over the face of 
vice. 

During the winter a great ball was given across 
the river, in a large barn, which had been cleared for 
the purpose, the price of the tickets being fixed at a 
dollar, which included an abundant supper. It was 
intimated, however, that those who had no money 
might pay in " dicker" — a Yankee word for barter ; 
a bundle of shingles, a certain number of eggs, or so 
much weight of butter, being held equivalent to the 
money, and securing a ticket. I was not present 
myself, never having much approved of these mixed 
parties, but the young folks round were in a great 
state of excitement about it, some of them coming as 
far as fifteen miles to attend it. They went past in 
sleigh loads, dashing over the ice on the river as if it 
had been solid ground. The girls were, of course, in 
the height of fashion, as they understood it ; some of 
them exposing themselves in ridiculously light 
clothing for the terrible season of the year, in the 
belief, no doubt, that it made them look the nicer. 
Fashions in those days did not travel fast, and what 
was in its full glory on the river had been well nigh 
forgotten where it took its rise, like the famous 



206 A holiday Coat. 

Steenkirk stock, of which Addison says that it took 
eleven years to travel from London to Newcastle. 
The taste shown was often very praiseworthy, but 
sometimes, it must be admitted, a little out of the 
way. I have seen girls with checked or figured white 
muslin dresses, wearing a black petticoat underneath 
to show off the beauties of the pattern ; and I knew 
of one case where a young woman, who was en- 
grossed in the awful business of buying her wedding 
dress, could get nothing to please her until she 
chanced to see, hanging up, a great white window 
curtain, with birds and flowers all over it, which she 
instantly pronounced to be the very thing she wanted, 
and took home in triumph ! There was one gen- 
tleman's coat on the river which might have formed 
a curiosity in a museum, as a relic of days gone by. 
The collar stood up round the ears in such a great 
roll that the shoulders and head seemed set on each 
other, and, as to the tails, they crossed each other 
like a marten's wings, somewhere about the knees. 
But it was in a good state of preservation, and, for 
aught I know, may be the holiday pride of its owner 
to this hour. 

It took a week or two for the last fragments of ice 
to disappear from the river, fresh floes coming down 
day after day from the lakes beyond, where spring 
sets in later. As they floated past I often used to 
think what a mercy it was that, while water gets 
heavier as it grows cold, until it comes to the freezing- 



Why Ice floats. 207 

point, it becomes lighter the moment it begins to 
freeze, and thus rises to the surface, to form ice there, 
instead of at the bottom. If it continued to get 
heavier after it froze, or if it continued as heavy after, 
as it was immediately before, the rivers and lakes 
would speedily become solid masses of ice, which 
could by no possibility be melted. The arrangement 
by which this is avoided, is a remarkable illustration 
of the Divine wisdom, and a striking proof of the 
contrivance and design which is in all God's works. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Wild leeks — Spring birds — Wilson's poem on the blue bird 
— Downy woodpeckers — Passenger pigeons — Their num- 
bers — Roosting places — The frogs — Bull frogs — Tree 
frogs — Flying squirrels. 

By the first of May the fields were beginning to put 
on their spring beauty. But in Canada, where vege- 
tation, once fairly started, makes a wonderfully rapid 
progress, it is not like that of England, where spring 
comes down, as the poet tells us — 

" Veiled in a shower of shadowing roses," 

and a long interval occurs between the first indica- 
tions of returning warmth, and the fuller proof of it 
in the rejoicing green of the woods and earth. The 
wild leeks in the bush seemed to awaken from their 
winter's sleep earlier than most other things, as 
we found to our cost, by the cows eating them 
and spoiling their milk and butter, by the strong 
disagreeable taste. In fact, both were abominable 
for weeks together, until other attractions in vaccine 
diet had superseded those of the leeks. It was de- 
lightful to look at the runnels of crystal water 
wimpling down the furrows as the sun grew strong ; 



Spring Birds. 209 

the tender grass beneath, and at each side, showing 
through the quivering flow like a frame of emerald. 
The great buds of the chestnuts and those of other trees 
grew daily larger, and shone in the thick waterproof- 
coatings with which they had been protected through 
the winter. Small green snakes, too, began to glide 
about after their long torpidity ; the wild fowl re- 
appeared in long flights high overhead, on their way 
to their breeding-places in the far north ; the reed- 
sparrows in their rich black plumage, with scarlet 
shoulders fading off to yellow ; the robin, resembling 
his English namesake only in the name, as he belongs 
to the family of thrushes in Canada ; the squirrels 
in their beautiful coats, with their great bushy tails 
and large eyes, stirring in every direction through 
the trees, and every little while proclaiming their 
presence by a sound which I can only compare to the 
whirr of a broken watch-spring; the frogs beginning 
to send up their thousand croaks from every standing 
pool — all things, indeed, in the animal and vegetable 
world showing signs of joy, heralded the flowery 
summer that was advancing towards us. 

The darling little blue-bird, the herald of spring, 
had already come to gladden us while the snow 
was yet on the ground, flitting about the barn and 
the fence-posts, and, after we had an orchard, about 
the apple-trees, of which it chiefly consisted. About 
the middle of March he and his mate might be seen 
visiting the box in the garden, where he had kept 



210 Wilson's Poem on the Blue Bird. 

house the year before, or, in places where the or- 
chards were old, looking at the hole in the apple-tree 
where his family had lived in preceding summers. 
He had come to be ready for the first appearance of 
the insects on which chiefly he feeds, and, by killing 
whole myriads of which, he proves himself one of 
the best friends of the farmer. There is a poem of 
Alexander Wilson, the American ornithologist, about 
the blue-bird, which tells the whole story of a 
Canadian spring so admirably, and is so little 
known, that I cannot resist the pleasure of quoting 
part of it. 

"When winter's cold tempests and snows are no more, 

Green meadows and brown furrowed fields re- appearing, 
The fishermen hauling their shad to the shore, 

And cloud cleaving geese to the lakes are a-steering ; 
When first the lone butterfly flits on the wing, 

When glow the red maples, so fresh and so pleasing, 
Oh, then comes the blue- bird, the herald of spring, 

And hails with his warblings the charms of the season. 

"Then loud piping frogs make the marshes to ring, 

Then warm glows the sunshine, and fine is the weather ; 
The blue woodland flowers just beginning to spring, 

And spice wood and sassafras budding together. 
O then to your gardens, ye housewives repair, 

Tour walks border up, sow and plant at your leisure, 
The blue-bird will chant from his box such an air 

That all your hard toils will seem truly a pleasure. 

" He flits through the orchard, he visits each tree, 

The red-flowering peach, and the apple's sweet blossoms ; 
He snaps up destroyers wherever they be, 

And seizes the caitiffs that lurk in their bosoms ; 



Downy Woodpeckers. 211 

He drags the vile grub from the corn he devours, 

The worms from their beds, where they riot and welter ; 

His song and his services freely are ours, 

And all that he asks is, in summer, a shelter. 

" The ploughman is pleased when he gleans in his train, 

Now searching the furrows, now mounting to cheer him ; 
The gardener delights in his sweet, simple strain 

And leans on his spade to survey and to hear him ; 
The slow ling'ring schoolboys forget they'll be chid, 

While gazing intent as he warbles before 'em 
In mantle of sky-blue, and bosom so red, 

That each little wanderer seems to adore him." 

The mention of the blue-bird's activity in destroy- 
ing insects brings to my mind my old friends, the 
woodpeckers, once more. In John Courtenay's or- 
chard, which was an old one, several of these birds 
built every season, hovering about the place the whole 
year, as they are among the very few Canadian birds 
that do not migrate. He showed me, one day, the 
nest of one of the species called " Downy," in an old 
apple-tree. A hole had been cut in the body of the 
tree, as round as if it had been marked out by a 
carpenter's compasses, about six or eight inches deep 
in a slanting direction, and then ten or twelve more 
perpendicularly, the top of it only large enough to 
let the parents in and out, but the bottom apparently 
quite roomy, for the young family. As far as I could 
see, it was as smooth as a man could have made it, 
and I was assured that it was the same in every part. 
It appears that these birds are as cunning as they 
are clever at this art, the two old ones regularly car- 
p2 



212 Downy Woodpeckers. 

rying out all the chips as they are made, and strew- 
ing them about at a considerable distance from the 
nest, so as to prevent suspicion of its presence. Six 
pure white eggs, laid on the smooth bottom of their 
curious abode, mark the number of each year's 
family, the female bird sitting closely on them while 
they are being hatched, her husband, meanwhile, 
busying himself in supplying her with choice grubs, 
that she may want for nothing in her voluntary im- 
prisonment. The little woodpeckers make their 
first appearance about the middle of June, when one 
may see them climbing the bark of the tree as well 
as they can, as if practising before they finally set 
out in life for themselves. I had often wondered at 
the appearance of the bark in many of the apple and 
pear-trees, which seemed as if some one had fired 
charges of shot into them; but it was long before I 
knew the real cause. It appears that it is the work 
of the woodpeckers, and many farmers consequently 
think the poor birds highly injurious to their or- 
chards. But there are no real grounds for such an 
opinion, for no mischief is done by these punctures, 
numerous though they be. I have always remarked 
that the trees which were perforated most seemed 
most thriving, no doubt because the birds had de- 
stroyed the insects which otherwise would have 
injured them. The autumn and winter is the great 
time for their operations, and it is precisely the time 
when the preservation of the fruit, in the coming 



Downy Woodpeckers. 213 

summer, can be best secured. Curious as it may- 
seem that such a riddling of the bark can be bene- 
ficial to the tree, it evidently is so. From the ground 
to where the branches fork off, there is often hardly 
an inch of the bark which does not bear the mark 
of some grub-hunt, and sometimes eight or ten of 
them might be covered by a penny. Farmers, how- 
ever, rarely philosophize, and no wonder that in this 
case they regard as prejudicial what is really a 
benefit. But, on the other hand, they are correct 
enough as to the habits of some of the woodpeckers, 
for greater thieves than the red-headed ones, at some 
seasons, can hardly be found. The little rascals 
devour fruit of all kinds as it ripens, completely 
stripping the trees, if permitted. In fact, they have 
a liking for all good things ; they are sure to pick 
the finest strawberries from your beds, and have no 
less relish for apples, peaches, cherries, plums, and 
pears; Indian corn, also, is a favourite dish with 
them, while it is still milky. Nor do these little 
plagues keep to vegetable diet exclusively ; the eggs 
in the nests of small birds are never passed by in 
their search for delicacies. One can't wonder, there- 
fore, that, with such plundering propensities, they 
should lose their lives pretty often. 

The flocks of pigeons that come in the early spring 
are wonderful. They fly together in bodies of many 
thousands, perching, as close as they can settle, on 
the trees when they alight, or covering the ground 



214 Passenger Pigeons. 

over large spaces when feeding. The first tidings of* 
their approach is the signal for every available gun 
to be brought into requisition, at once to procure a 
supply of fresh food, and to protect the crops on the 
fields, which the pigeons would utterly destroy if 
they were allowed. It is singular how little sense, 
or perhaps fear, such usually timid birds have when 
collected together in numbers. I have heard of one 
man who was out shooting them, and had crept close 
to one flock, when their leaders took a fancy to fly 
directly over him, almost close to the ground, to his 
no small terror. Thousands brushed past him so 
close as to make him alarmed for his eyes ; and the 
stream still kept pouring on after he had discharged 
his barrels, right and left, into it, until nothing re- 
mained but to throw himself on his face till the 
whole had flown over him. They do not, however, 
come to any part of Canada with which I am ac- 
quainted in such amazing numbers as are said by 
Wilson and Audubon to visit the western United 
States. The latter naturalist left his house at Hen- 
derson, on the Ohio, in the autumn of 1813, on his 
way to Louisville, and on passing the Barrens, a few- 
miles beyond Hardensburgh, observed the pigeons 
flying from north-east to south-west in such num- 
bers, that he thought he would try to calculate how 
many there really were. Dismounting, and seating 
himself on a knoll, he began making a dot in his 
note-book for every flock that passed, but in a short 



Their Numbers. 215 

time had to give up the attempt, as he had already 
put down a hundred and sixty-three in twenty-one 
minutes, and they still poured on in countless multi- 
tudes. The air was literally rilled with pigeons; 
the light of noon-day was obscured as if by an 
eclipse, and the continued buzz of wings produced 
an inclination to drowsiness. When he reached 
Louisville, a distance of fifty-five miles, the pigeons 
were still passing in unabated numbers, and con- 
tinued to do so for three days in succession. He 
calculated that, if two pigeons were allowed for each 
square yard, the number in a single flock — and that 
not a large one, extending one mile in breadth and a 
hundred and eighty in length — could not be less than 
one billion, one hundred and fifteen millions, one 
hundred and thirty- six thousand ! The food re- 
quired for such a countless host passes our power to 
realize clearly, for, at half a pint a day, which is 
hardly as much as a pigeon consumes, they would 
eat, in a single day, eight millions, seven hundred 
and twelve thousand bushels. To get such supplies 
from cultivated fields would, of course, be impossible, 
and it is fortunate that they hardly ever attempt it, 
their principal support being the vast quantities of 
beech-mast which the unlimited expanse of unbroken 
forest supplies. 

A curious fact respecting them is that they have 
fixed roosting-places, from which no disturbance 
appears able to drive them, and to these they resort 



21 6 Roosting-places. 

night by night, however far they may have to fly to 
obtain food on the returning day. One of them, in 
Kentucky, was repeatedly visited by Audubon, who 
found that it was about forty miles in length by 
three in breadth. A fortnight after the pigeons had 
chosen it for the season, he found that a great number 
of persons with horses and waggons, guns and ammu- 
nition, had already established themselves on its 
borders. Herds of hogs had been driven up to fatten 
on a portion of those which might be killed. Some of 
the visitors were busy plucking and salting what had 
been already procured, huge piles of them lying on each 
side of their seats. Many trees two feet in diameter 
were broken off at no great distance from the ground 
by the weight of the multitudes that had lighted on 
them ; and huge branches had given way, as if the 
forest had been swept by a tornado. As the hour of 
their arrival approached, every preparation was made 
to receive them : iron pots, containing sulphur, 
torches of pine-knots, poles, and guns, being got ready 
for use the moment they came. Shortly after sun- 
set the cry arose that they were come at last. The 
noise they made, though yet distant, was like that of 
a hard gale at sea, when it passes through the rigging 
of a closely-reefed vessel. Thousands were soon 
knocked down by the polemen ; the birds continued 
to pour in ; the fires were lighted ; and a magni- 
ficent as well as wonderful and almost terrifying 
sight presented itself. The pigeons, arriving by 



Roosting -places. 217 

thousands, alighted everywhere, one above another, 
until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed 
on the branches all round. Here and there the 
perches gave way, and falling on the ground with a 
crash, destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, 
forcing down the dense groups with which every 
spot was loaded. The pigeons were constantly 
coming, and it was past midnight before he perceived 
a decrease in their number. Before daylight they 
had begun again to move off, and by sunrise all were 
gone. This is Audubon's account. I myself have 
killed thirteen at a shot, fired at a venture into a 
flock ; and my sister Margaret killed two one day by 
simply throwing up a stick she had in her hand as 
they swept past at a point where we had told her to 
stand, in order to frighten them into the open 
ground, that we might have a better chance of 
shooting them. I have seen bagfuls of them that 
had been 'killed by no more formidable weapons 
than poles swung right and left at them as they flew 
close past. The rate at which they fly is wonderful, 
and has been computed at about a mile a minute, 
at which rate they keep on for hours together, dart- 
ing forward with rapid beats of their wings very 
much as our ordinary pigeons do. 

The frogs were as great a source of amuse- 
ment to us as the pigeons were of excitement. 
Wherever there was a spot of water, thence, by 
night and day, came their chorus, the double 



218 Bull Frogs. 

bass of the bull-frogs striking in every now and then 
amidst the indescribable piping of the multitudes of 
their smaller brethren. It is very difficult to catch a 
sight of these bassoon performers, as they spring into 
the water at the slightest approach of danger ; yet 
you may now and then come on them basking at the 
side of a pond or streamlet, their great goggle eyes 
and black skin making them look very grotesque. 
They are great thieves in their own proper element, 
many a duckling vanishing from its mother's side by 
a sudden snap of some one of these solemn gentlemen 
below. They are a hungry race, always ready 
apparently for what they can get, and making short 
work with small fishes, all kinds of small reptiles, 
and even, I believe, the lesser kinds of snakes, when 
they can get them. These fellows are the giants of 
the frog tribes, and portly gentlemen withal, some of 
them weighing very nearly a pound. The shrill 
croak of the other frogs is like nothing else that I 
ever heard : it is a sort of trill of two or three notes, 
as if coming through water, and it rises from so 
many throats at once that it may be said never for a 
moment to cease. There is a kind of frog which 
lives on the branches of trees, catching the insects on 
the leaves — a beautiful little creature, of so nicely 
shaded a green that it is almost impossible to detect 
it even when you are close to it. Henry and I 
were one day at work in the early summer near a 
young maple, in the back part of the farm, and could 



Tree Frogs. 219 

hardly keep up conversation for the hissing trill 
of a number of them on it; but though the tree 
was so near us we could not, by all our looking, 
discover any of the invisible minstrels. At last the 
thing became so ludicrous that we determined, if 
possible, to get a sight of one; and as the lower 
branches began at about our own height, one of us 
went to the one side, and the other to the other, to 
watch . Trill — trill — bubble — bubble — bubble — rose 
all around us, but no other signs of the warblers. We 
looked and laughed, laughed and looked again ; the 
sound was within a yard of us, yet nothing could be 
seen. When almost giving up, however, I chanced 
to look exactly on the spot where one was making 
his little throat swell to get out another set of notes, 
and the rise and fall of its breast at once discovered 
its presence. Henry was at my side in a moment, 
and we could both see it plainly enough, of course, 
when our eyes had once fairly distinguished it from 
the green around. It continued to sit unmoved on 
its leaf, and we did not disturb it. 

One morning we came upon a beautiful little 
creature which had been killed by some means, and 
lay in the yard near the barn. It was evidently a 
squirrel, but differed from the ordinary species in 
one curious particular. Instead of having its legs 
free like those of other squirrels, a long stretch of 
fur extended from the front to the back legs so 
as to form something -like wings when spread 



220 Flying Squirrels. 

out. It was a flying squirrel, a kind not so common 
as the others, and coming out mostly by night. These 
extraordinary appendages at their sides are used by 
them to sustain them in enormous leaps which they 
make from branch to branch, or from one tree to 
another. Trusting to them they dart hither and 
thither with wonderful swiftness ; indeed, it is hard 
for the eye to follow their movements. What most 
struck me in this unusual development was the 
evident approach it made towards the characteristic 
of birds, being as it were a link between the form of 
an ordinary quadruped and that of a bat, and stand- 
ing in the same relation to the wing of the latter as 
that does to the wing of a bird. It is singular how 
one class of creatures merges into another in every 
department of animal life. Indeed, it is puzzling at 
times to distinguish between vegetable and animal 
structures where the confines of the two kingdoms 
join, as the word zoophyte, which really means " a 
living plant, 1 ' sufficiently shows. Then there is a 
caterpillar in New Zealand out of whose back, at a 
certain stage of its growth, springs a kind of fungus, 
which gradually drinks up the whole juices of the 
insect and destroys it ; but this is not so much an 
approximation of two different orders as an acci- 
dental union. There are, however, many cases of 
interlinking in the different " families" into which life 
is divided, the study of which is exceedingly curious 
and interesting. 



221 



CHAPTEK XIV. 

Our spring crops — Indian corn — Pumpkins — Melons — 
Fruits— Wild Flowers. 

The first thing we thought of when the spring had 
fairly set in was to get spring wheat, potatoes, Indian 
corn, pumpkins, oats, and other crops into the 
ground. Our potatoes were managed in a very 
primitive way, in a patch of newly-cleared ground, 
the surface of which, with a good deal more, we 
had to burn off before it could be tilled. A heavy 
hoe was the only implement used, a stroke or two 
with it sufficing to make a hole for the potato cut- 
tings, and two or three more to drag the earth over 
them, so as to form a " hill." These Ave made at 
about eighteen inches apart, putting three or four 
pumpkin seeds in every third hill of the alternate 
rows. The Indian corn was planted in the same 
way, in hills more than a yard apart, pumpkin seeds 
being put in with it also. It is my favourite of all 
the beautiful plants of Canada. A field of it, when 
at its finest, is, I think, as charming a sight as could 
well invite the eye. Eising higher than the height 
of a man, its great jointed stems are crested at the 
top by a long waving plume of purple, while from the 



222 Pumpkins. 

upper end of each head of the grain there waves 
a long tassel resembling pale green silk. It is 
grown to a large extent in Canada, but it is most 
cultivated in the Western United States, many 
farmers on the prairies there growing a great many- 
acres of it. It is used in many ways. When still 
unripe it is full of delicious milky juice, which makes 
it a delicacy for the table when boiled. The ripe 
corn makes excellent meal for cakes, &c, and is the* 
best food for pigs or poultry, while the stalks make 
excellent fodder for cattle. The poor Indians grow 
a little corn when they grow nothing else. You may 
see the long strings of ears plaited together by the 
tough wrappings round each, and hung along poles 
round their wigwams to dry for winter use. They 
have been in possession of it no one can tell how 
long. When the M ay Flower anchored, with the 
Pilgrim Fathers, at Plymouth Bay, in Massachusetts, 
in 1620, they found hoards of it buried for safety in 
the woods around, the Indians having taken this 
plan to conceal it from them. 

The size of the pumpkins is sometimes enormous. 
I have known them so large that one would fill a 
wheelbarrow, and used often to think of a piece of 
rhyme I learned when a boy, in which it was pointed 
out what a mercy it was that they grew on the ground 
rather than aloft, acorns being quite heavy enough 
in windy weather.* They are used in great quan- 

* Le Gland et la Citrouille : Fables de La Fontaine, B. ix. 4. 



Melons. 223 

titles for " pumpkin pie," as the Canadians call it — a 
preparation of sweetened pumpkin spread over paste. 
They use them in this way not only while fresh, but 
cut a great many into thin slices and dry them, that 
they may have this dessert in winter as well as 
summer. They are excellent food for pigs and 
cattle when broken into manageable pieces for them. 
I don't think anything grew with us better than 
beets and carrots, the latter especially. A farmer in 
our neighbourhood, who was partial to their growth 
for the sake of his horses and cattle, beat us, how- 
ever, in the quantity raised on a given space, having 
actually gathered at the rate of thirteen hundred 
bushels per acre of carrots. We had a carrot show 
some years after in the neighbouring township, at 
which this fact was stated, and its accuracy fairly 
established by the fact of others having gathered at 
the rate of as many as eleven hundred bushels per 
acre. I remember the meeting chiefly from the 
assertion of an Irishman present, who would not 
allow that anything in Canada could surpass its 
counterpart in his native island, and maintained that 
these carrots were certainly very good, but that they 
were nothing to one which was grown near Cork, which 
was no less than eight feet nine inches in length ! 

A variety of melons formed one of the novelties 
we grew after the first season. We had nothing to 
do but put them in the ground and keep them free 
from weeds, when they began to " run" — as they did, 
far and near, over the ground. It was an easy way 



224 Fruits. 

to get a luxury, for some of them are very delicious, 
and all are very refreshing in the sultry heat of 
summer. They grow in every part of Canada in 
great luxuriance, and without anything like a pre- 
paration of the soil. Indeed, I once saw a great 
fellow of an Indian planting some, which would 
doubtless grow well enough, with his toes — pushing 
aside earth enough to receive the seeds, and then, 
with another motion of his foot, covering them up. 
Cucumbers grew in surprising numbers from a very 
small quantity of seed, and we had a castor-oil plant 
and some plants of red pepper before our doors. We 
had not very much time at first to attend to a vege- 
table garden, and therefore contented ourselves with 
a limited range of that kind of comforts, but it was 
not the fault of the soil or climate, for in no place of 
which I know do the various bounties of the garden 
grow more freely than in Canada. Cabbages, cauli- 
flower, brocoli, peas, French beans, spinach, onions, 
turnips, carrots, parsnips, radishes, lettuces, beet, 
asparagus, celery, rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers, and 
I know not what else, need only to be sown or 
planted to yield a most bountiful return. 

As to fruits, we had, for years, to buy all we used, 
or to gather it in the woods, but it was very cheap 
when bought, and easily procured when gathered. 
Apples of a size and flavour almost peculiar to 
America, pears, plums, cherries, raspberries, currants, 
and strawberries grow everywhere in amazing abun- 



Fruits. 225 

dance. Peaches of the sunniest beauty and most 
delicate flavour are at times in some districts almost 
as plentiful as potatoes ; but we never managed to 
get any from our orchard, want of knowledge on our 
part having spoiled our first trees, which we never 
afterwards exchanged for others. But on the Niagara 
Eiver I have known them sell for a shilling a bushel, 
and every labourer you met would be devouring 
them by the half-dozen. A gentleman within a few 
miles of us took a fancy to cultivate grapes as ex- 
tensively as he could in the open air, and succeeded 
so well that he told me before I left that he had sold 
a year's crop for about a hundred pounds. If we 
had had as much shrewdness as we ought to have 
had, we should have begun the culture of fruit 
rather than of mere farm produce, and I feel sure it 
would have paid us far better. But people coming 
fresh to a country take a long time to learn what is 
best for them to do, and when they have learned, 
have too often no sufficient means of turning to it, 
or, perhaps, no leisure, while many, through disap- 
pointed hopes, lose their spirit and energy. 

The wild fruits we found to be as various as the 
cultivated kinds, and some of them were very good. 
The wild cherries were abundant in our bush, and 
did excellently for preserves. Gooseberries, small, 
with a rough prickly skin and of a poor flavour, were 
often brought by the Indians to barter for pork or 
flour. Easpberries and strawberries covered the open 
Q 



226 Wild Flowers. 

places at the roadsides, and along the banks or 
"creeks;" and whortleberries and blue berries, 
black and red currants, juniper berries, plums and 
hazel nuts, were never far distant. We used to gather 
large quantities ourselves, and the Indians were con- 
stantly coming with pailfuls in the season. It is one 
of the beneficent arrangements of Providence that, 
in a climate so exceedingly hot in summer, there 
should be such a profusion of fruits and vegetables 
within the reach of all, adding not only to comfort, 
but diffusing enjoyment, and exerting, also, a salu- 
tary influence upon health. 

What shall I say of the wild flowers which burst 
out as the year advanced ? In open places, the woods 
were well-nigh carpeted with them, and clearings 
that had, for whatever reason, been for a time 
abandoned, soon showed like gardens with their 
varied colours. The scarlet lobelia, the blue lupin, 
gentian, columbine, violets in countless variety, 
honeysuckles flinging their fragrant flowers in long 
tresses from the trees, campanula, harebell, balsams, 
asters, calceolarias, the snowy lily of the valley, 
and clouds of wild roses, are only a few from the 
list. Varieties of mint, with beautiful flowers, 
adorned the sides of streams or the open meadows, 
and, resting in a floating meadow of its own green 
leaves, on the still water of the river-bends, or of 
the creeks, whole stretches of the great white water- 
lily, rose and fell with every gentle undulation. 



The "Bitter Sweet." 227 

There was a berry, also, the " bitter sweet," which 
was, in the later part of the year, as pretty as any 
flower. At the end of each of the delicate twigs on 
which it grew, it hung in clusters, which, while un- 
ripe, were of the richest orange ; but, after a time, 
this covering opened into four golden points and 
showed, in the centre, a bright scarlet berry. 



Q2 



228 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Indians — Wigwams — Dress — Can the Indians be 
civilized? — Their past deca}^ as a race — Alleged innocence 
of savage life — Narrative of Father Jogues, the Jesuit 
missionary. 

Before coming to America we had read a great deal 
about the Indians, and were most anxious to see them. 
I remember asking a lady from Canada if she was not 
afraid of them, and was astonished when she smiled 
at the question. Our minds had been filled in 
childhood with stories about the Mohawks, and Hu- 
rons, and other savage nations; how they rushed on 
the houses of settlers at the dead of night, and, after 
burning their houses, killed and scalped the men, and 
drove the women and children into captivity in the 
woods. Their painted faces, wild feathered dresses, 
and terrible war-cry had become quite familiar to our 
heated fancies; and we were by no means sure we 
should not have to endure too close an acquaintance 
with them when we became settlers in their country. 
The terrible story on which Campbell's beautiful 
poem, " Gertrude of Wyoming," is founded, was re- 
garded as a sample of what we had to fear in our day 
in Canada. Moreover, the romantic accounts of In- 
dian warriors in the novels of Cooper, and in the 



Indian Wigwams, 229 

writings of travellers, helped to increase both our 
curiosity and dread, and we were all most anxious to 
see the representatives of the red men in our own 
settlement, notwithstanding our extravagant fear 
of them. "We were not long left to think what 
they were like, however ; for it so happened that 
there was an Indian settlement on land reserved for 
them along the river a few miles above us, and odd 
families ever and anon pitched their wigwams in 
the bush close to us. The first time they did 
so, we all went out eager to see them at once, but 
never were ridiculous high-flown notions doomed to 
meet a more thorough disappointment. They were 
encamped on the sloping bank of the creek, for it was 
beautiful slimmer weather, two or three wigwams 
rising under the shade of a fine oak which stretched 
high overhead. The wigwams themselves were 
simply sheets of the bark of the birch and bass-trees, 
laid against a slight framework of poles inside, and 
sloping inwards like a cone, with a hole at the top. 
An open space served for an entrance, a loose sheet 
of bark, at the side, standing ready to do duty as a 
door, if required. I have seen them of different 
shapes, but they are generally round, though a few 
show the fancy of their owners by resembling the 
sloping roof of a house laid on the ground, with the 
entry at one end. Bark is the common material ; 
but in the woods on the St. Clair river I once saw a 
family ensconced below some yards of white cotton, 



230 Indian Wigwams. 

stretched over two or three rods ; and near Halifax, 
in Nova Scotia, in winter, I noticed some wigwams made 
of loose broken outside slabs of logs, which the inmates 
had laboriously got together. In this last miserable 
hovel, by the way, in the midst of deep snow, with 
the wind whistling through it in every direction, and 
the thermometer below zero, lay a sick squaw and a 
young infant, on some straw and old blankets, to get 
well the best way she could. What she must have 
suffered from the cold can hardly be conceived. No 
wonder so many die of consumption. 

In the group at the wigwams, as we drew near, we 
could see there were both men, women, and children 
— the men and women ornamented with great flat 
silver earrings, and all, including the children, bare- 
headed. Their hair was of jet black, and quite 
straight, and the men had neither beards nor whis- 
kers. Both sexes wore their hair long, some of them 
plaiting it up in various ways. Their colour was 
like that of a brown dried leaf, their cheek-bones 
high and wide apart ; their mouths generally large, 
and their eyes smaller than ours; and we noticed 
that they all had good teeth. This is not, however, 
an invariable characteristic, for sometimes they 
suffer from their decay, like Europeans, and the 
doctor once told me how an Indian had waited for 
him at the side of the road, and, when he came up, 
had made signs of pain from toothache, and of his 
wish that the tooth should be removed, which was 



Indian Dress. 231 

forthwith done, the sufferer departing in great glee 
at the thought of his deliverance. " The next day," 
the doctor added, u the poor fellow showed his grati- 
tude by waiting for me at the same place with a fine 
stone pipe-head, which he had just cut, and which 
he handed to me with a grunt of goodwill as I came 
up." The dress of the women consisted of a cotton 
jacket, a short petticoat of cloth, with leggings of 
cloth underneath, which fitted tightly. Those who 
were doing nothing had a blanket loosely thrown 
over them, though it was then hot enough to do 
without almost any clothing. The dress of the men 
varied, from the merest mockery of clothing to the 
full suit of a cotton shirt and a pair of long leather 
or cloth leggings. One of them, a great strapping 
man, gave my sisters a great fright, shortly after, by 
walking into the house as noiselessly as a cat, and 
stalking up to the fire for a light to his pipe, with 
nothing on him but a cotton shirt. Pulling out a 
piece of burning wood and kindling his pipe, he sat 
down on a chair beside them to enjoy a smoke, 
without ever saying a word, and went off, when he 
had finished, with equal silence. The little children 
were naked either altogether, or with the exception 
of a piece of cotton round their loins ; and the babies, 
of which there are always some in every Indian 
encampment, peered out with their bright black 
beads of eyes from papooses, either hung up on a 
forked pole or resting against a tree. These u pa- 



232 Indian Babies. 

pooses" were quite a novelty to us. They were 
simply a flat board a little longer than the infant, 
with a bow of hickory bent in an arch over the 
upper end, to protect the head, and some strings at 
the sides to tie the little creature safely. There 
it lay or stood, with abundant wrappings round it, 
but with its legs and arms in hopeless confinement, 
its little eyes and thin trembling lips alone telling 
the story of its tender age. To lift it was like taking 
hold of a fiddle, only you could hardly hurt it so 
easily as you might the instrument. Not a cry was 
to be heard, for Indian babies seem always good, 
and nobody was uselessly occupied in taking care of 
them, for, where they were, no injury could come 
near them. I should not myself like to be tied up 
in such a way, but it seems to do famously with 
them. One of the women had her child at her back> 
inside her blanket, its little brown face and black 
eyes peering over her shoulder. Another was put- 
ting some sticks under a pot, hung from a pole, 
which rested on the forks of two others; and one or 
two were enjoying a gossip on the grass. The men, 
of course, were doing nothing, while the boys were 
amusing themselves with their bows and arrows, in 
the use of which they are very expert. We had 
been told that they could hit almost anything, and 
resolved to try them with some coppers, which were 
certainly very small objects to strike in the air; but 
the little fellows were wonderful archers. Each half- 



Indian Habits. 233 

penny got its quietus the moment it left our fingers, 
and they eyen hit a sixpence which Henry, in a fit 
of generosity, liirew up. Birds must have a very 
small chance of escape when they get within range 
of their arrows. It brought to my mind the little 
Balearic islanders, who in old times could not get 
their dinners till they had hit them from the top of a 
high pole with their slings, and country boys I had 
seen in England, whom long practice had taught to 
throw stones so exactly that they could hit almost 
anything. Indeed, there seems to be nothing that 
we may not learn if we only try long enough, and 
with sufficient earnestness. 

It used to astonish me to 'see the Indians on the 
" Eeserye' 1 living in bark wigwams, close to comfort- 
able log-houses erected for them by Government, 
but which they would not take as a gift. I used to 
think it a striking proof of the difficulty of breaking 
off the habits formed in uncivilized life, and so in- 
deed it is : but the poor Indians have more sense in 
what seems madness than I at first supposed. It 
appears they feel persuaded that living one part of 
the year in the warmth and comfort of a log house 
makes them unable to bear the exposure during the 
rest, when they are away in the woods on their 
hunting expeditions. But why they should not give 
up these wandering habits, which force such hard- 
ships on them, and repay them so badly after all, is 
wonderful, and must be attributed to the inveterate 



234 Can the Indians he Civilized? 

force of habit. It seems to be very hard to get wild- 
ness out of the blood when once fairly in it. It takes 
generations in most cases to make such men civilized. 
Lord Dartmouth once founded a college for Indians 
in Massachusetts, when it was a British province, 
and some of them were collected and taught English 
and the classics, with the other branches of a liberal 
^education ; but it was found, after they had finished 
their studies, that they were still Indians, and that, as 
soon as they had a chance, they threw away their 
books and English clothes, to run off again to the 
woods and wander about in clothes of skins, and live 
in wigwams. It is the same with the aborigines of 
Australia. The missionaries and their wives have 
tried to get them taught the simple rudiments of 
English life — the boys to work and the girls to sew — 
but it has been found that, after a time, they always 
got like caged birds beating against their prison, and 
that they could not be kept from darting off again to 
the wilderness. The New Zealander stands, so far 
as I know, a solitary and wonderful exception to this 
rule, the sons of men who were cannibals having 
already adopted civilization to so great an extent as 
to be their own shipbuilders, sailors, captains, clerks, 
schoolmasters and farmers. 

It seems almost the necessary result of civilized 
and uncivilized people living together in the same 
country that the latter, as the weaker, should fade 
away before their rivals, if they do not thoroughly 



Their past Decay as a Race. 235 

adopt their habits. The aboriginal inhabitants of 
the Sandwich Islands are rapidly approaching ex- 
tinction in spite of all efforts to secure their perma- 
nence. The vices of civilization have corrupted the 
very blood of the race till they seem hopelessly 
fading away. The natives of New Holland are 
vanishing in the same way, though not, perhaps, 
from the same immediate causes. The Caribs of the 
West Indies, who were so fierce and powerful in the 
days of Columbus and his successors, are now ex- 
tinct. It is much the same with the Eed Man of 
America. The whole continent was theirs from 
north to south, and from east to west, but now they 
are only to be found crowded into corners of our 
different provinces, a poor and miserable remnant, 
or as fugitives in remote prairies and forests, for they 
have been nearly banished altogether from the 
settled territories of the States. It is a curious fact, 
also, that this is not the first time widely-spread 
races of their colour have been swept away from the 
same vast surface. Remains of former populations, 
which have perished before those who themselves are 
now perishing, are to be found in many parts, as in 
the huge burial mounds of Ohio, and the ruined 
cities of Guatemala and Yucatan. Canada has now 
settlements of Indians in various places, but they are, 
altogether, few in number. One is on Manitoulin 
Island, near the northern shore of Lake Huron, 
where a clergyman of the Church of England, Mr. 



236 Indian Decay as a Race. 

Peter Jacobs, himself an Indian, ministers as a 
zealous and efficient missionary ; another, at the 
head of River St. Clair, stretches down the bank for 
four or five miles, the picture of neglect and aversion 
to work, in the midst of improvement at each side; 
one on Walpole Island, down the river, where the 
missionary is one of the most earnest and laborious I 
have had the pleasure of knowing ; one on the banks 
of the River Thames, under the charge of the Mo- 
ravian brethren — the wreck of tribes who left the 
States in the war, last century — forming, with another 
settlement on the Grand River, near Brantford, the 
representatives of those who, in Lord Chatham's day, 
brought down that great orator's terrible denuncia- 
tion of the " calling into civilized alliance the wild 
and inhuman inhabitants of the woods, and dele- 
gating to the tomahawk and the scalping-knife of 
the merciless savage the rights of disputed property." 
There are some others to the north and east of 
Toronto, but their numbers altogether are but the 
shadow of what they were once. Old Courtenay, 
speaking to me one day about those on the River St. 
Clair, where he had lived from his childhood, shook 
his head as a wandering, miserable family passed by 
on their wretched ponies, and said, feelingly, " Poor 
things ! they'll soon follow the rest. I remember 
when there were a hundred on the river for twenty 
there are now. They all go at the lungs. Lying 
out in the wet brings on the terrible cough, and 



Indian Decay as a Race, 237 

they're gone." The Indian Agent for the west of 
the province told me, however, when in England, 
lately, that they were keeping np their numbers 
now; but I can hardly see how it is possible, 
if they do not take more care of themselves. The 
very mocassins they wear for shoes are fit, in my 
opinion, to kill any one — mere coverings of deer 
leather, which soak up water like blotting-paper, 
and keep them as if perpetually standing in a pool. 
Then they get spirits from the storekeepers, in 
spite of every effort on the part of Government 
to prevent it, and they often suffer such privations 
for want of food as must tell fearfully on their 
health. I have often watched them passing on 
ponies or a-foot ; if the former, the squaws sitting 
cross-legged on the bare backs, like men, with their 
children round them, and guiding their animals by a 
rope halter; the men carrying only a gun, if they 
were rich enough to have one; and I have thought 
of the contrast between their present state and the 
story of their numbers and fierceness, as handed 
down in the old French narratives of two hundred 
years ago; how they kept the French in perpetual 
fear, burning their houses and even their towns"'; 
how the woods swarmed, in different parts, with 
their different independent nations — the Hurons, 
the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Ojibbeways — and 
how," in later years, they played so terrible a part 
in the French and American wars with Great 



238 Alleged Innocence of Savage Life. 

Britain. They seem like snow in summer, when 
only a patch lies here and there, awaiting speedy 
disappearance, of all that covered hill and valley in 
its season. Some tribes, indeed, have passed away 
altogether since the first landing of Europeans on the 
continent. Those at Nonantum, in Massachusetts, 
for whom the great missionary, John Eliot, trans- 
lated the Bible two hundred years ago, are all gone, 
so that the Book which once spoke to them of the 
world to come, and a copy of which still survives in 
the museum at Boston, now lies open without a living 
creature who can read it. The Mandans, a great 
tribe in the western prairies — the only tribe, indeed, 
of whom I have heard, among the Indians of the 
present day, as building regular fortified and per- 
manent villages and towns, have been entirely swept 
off within the last thirty years by the small-pox, which 
was brought among them by some poor trader. 

It is a striking contradiction to what we sometimes 
hear of the happy innocence of savage life that the 
Indians, when they had all the country to them- 
selves, were continually at war with one another. 
The Mohawks, who lived in the northern part of the 
United States, seem especially to have been given to 
strife, often leaving their own side of the great lakes 
to make desolating inroads into Canada, until their 
name became such a word of terror that the very 
mention of it spread alarm in an encampment. Even 
at this day, I have been assured that to raise the 
cry of " the Mohawks are coming," would strike a 



The Mohawh. 239 

delirium of panic through a whole settlement. They 
seem to think they are still somewhere not far off, 
and may reappear at any moment. But though the 
Mohawks may have left so blood-stained a memory 
of themselves, it may be safely said that there was 
hardly one tribe better than another. The pages 
of the old chroniclers are red with the continual 
record of their universal conflicts. At the same 
time, it is curious, as showing how widely-spread the 
terrors of the Mohawk name came to be, that the 
dissolute young men of Addison's day, who were 
wont to find pleasure in acts of violence and terror in 
the streets of London by night, called themselves 
" Mohocks." The French appear to have them- 
selves been in part to blame for their sufferings from 
the Indians, from the wars they excited between rival 
nations, and the readiness with which they furnished 
their allies with the means of destruction. The 
passions thus kindled too often recoiled upon them- 
selves. Their traders had no scruples in supply- 
ing to any extent the three great cravings of an 
Indian — rum, tobacco, and scalping-knives — the first 
of which led, in innumerable cases, to the too ready 
use of the last. A scalping-knife, by the way, is an 
ugly weapon, with a curved blade like an old-fashioned 
razor, but sharp at the point, and was used to cut 
off the skin from the top of a dead enemy's head, with 
the hair on it, to preserve as a proof of their warlike 
exploits. The number of scalps any warrior pos- 
sessed being hailed as the measure of his renown in 



240 A Narrow Escajie. 

his tribe, the desire for them became as much a 
passion with an Indian as the wish for the Vic- 
toria Cross with a British soldier, and raised an 
almost ungovernable excitement in their breasts 
when an opportunity for gratifying it offered itself. 
A story is told of a British officer who was travelling 
many years ago in America, with an Indian for his 
guide, waking suddenly one morning and finding him 
standing over him in a state of frenzy, his features 
working in the conflict of overpowering passions like 
those of one possessed, his knife in his hand, ready, if 
the evil spirit triumphed, to destroy his master for 
the sake of his scalp. The officer's waking, happily 
broke the spell, and the Indian flung himself at the 
feet of his intended victim, told him his tempta- 
tion, and rejoiced that he had escaped. He had seen 
him playing with his long soft hair, he said, and 
could not keep from thinking what a nice scalp it 
would furnish, till he had all but murdered him to 
get it.* 

That the very name of " Indian" should have 
filled the heart of all who heard it in old times with 
horror is not to be wondered at. However miserable 
they may be now, in great part through their con- 
stant wars among themselves, ,they were frightfully 
cruel and bloodthirsty savages when their nations 

* The ancient Scythians, also, scalped their enemies. 
(Herodotus, Bk. iv. 64.) The Indians are only Scythians 
or Tartars who have fallen from the pastoral to the hunting 
life. 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 241 

and tribes were numerous. We have little idea from 
anything Canada now offers, as to their manners and 
habits, or their character, in the days of their fierce 
power ; but it cannot be said that this is owing to 
their being civilized or to their having become more 
humane. They are still as wild, to a large extent, 
as the wild beasts of the woods, in all their habits — • 
still wanderers — still idle and thriftless — still without 
any arts — and still without anything like national 
progress. It rises only from their being a crushed 
and dispirited remnant, who have lost the bold- 
ness of their ancestors, and are fairly cowed and 
broken by a sense of their weakness. Out of the 
reach of civilization they are still the same as ever ; 
and what that was in the days when they were the 
lords of Canada we may judge from the accounts lefb 
by the French missionaries, who then lived among 
them. The following narrative, which I translate 
from its quaint old French, has not, I believe, been 
printed before in English, and takes us most vividly 
back to those bygone times.* As a Protestant, I do 
not agree with everything that it contains, but you 
can remember that it is the narrative of a Jesuit 
priest. 

Father Jogues was of a good family of the town 
of Orleans, in France, and was sent to Canada by the 
general of his order in 1636. He went up to the 

* ""Relations des Jesuites dans la Nouvelle France." 
Quebec, 1853. 



242 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

country of the Hurons the same year, and stayed 
there till June, 1642, when he was sent to Quebec 
on the affairs of the "great and laborious mission" 
among that people. Father Lallemant, at that time 
superior of the mission, sent for him, and proposed 
the voyage, which was a terrible task, owing to the 
difficulty of the roads, and very dangerous from the 
risk of ambuscades of the Iroquois, who massacred 
every year a number of the Indians allied with the 
Erench. He proceeds to say — 

" The proposition being made to me, I em- 
braced it with all my heart. Behold us, then, 
on the way, and in dangers of every kind. We 
had to disembark forty times, and forty times 
to carry our canoes, and all our baggage, past the 
currents and rapids which we met in a voyage 
of about three hundred leagues; and although the 
savages who conducted us were very expert, we 
could not avoid the frequent upsetting of our canoes, 
accompanied with great danger to our lives, and the 
loss of our little luggage. At last, twenty-three 
days after our departure from the Hurons, we 
arrived, very weary, at Three Rivers, whence we 
descended to Quebec. Our business being com- 
pleted in a fortnight, we kept the feast of St. 
Ignatius; and the next day, the 1st of August, 
1642, left Three Rivers to retrace our steps to 
the country whence we had come. The first day 
was favourable to us; the second 3 we fell into the 



Narrative of Father J agues. 213 

hands of the Iroquois. We were forty in number, 
divided among different canoes; and that which 
carried the advance guard having discovered, on the 
banks of the great river, some tracks of men's feet 
newly impressed on the sand and clay, made it 
known. When we had landed, some said they were 
traces of an enemy, others were sure they were the 
footmarks of Algonquins, our allies. In this conten- 
tion of opinion Eustache Ahatsistari, to whom all the 
others deferred on account of his deeds of arms and 
his bravery, cried out — ' Whether they are friends 
or enemies does not matter ; I see by their tracks 
that they are not more in number than ourselves ; 
let us advance, and fear nothing.' 

" We had hardly gone on a half league when the 
enemy, hidden in the grass and brush, rose with a 
loud cry, discharging on our canoes a perfect hail of 
bullets. The noise of their arquebuses so terrified a 
part of our liurons that they abandoned their canoes, 
and their arms, and all their goods, to save them- 
selves by flight into the depths of the woods. This 
volley did us little harm ; no one lost his life. One 
Huron only had his hand pierced by a ball, and our 
canoes were broken in several places. There were 
four Frenchmen of us, one of whom being in the 
rear-guard, saved himself with the Hurons, who fled 
before approaching the enemy. Eight or ten Chris- 
tian catechumens joined us, and having got them to 
offer a short prayer, they made head courageously 
k2 



24 1 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

against the enemy, and though they were thirty men 
against a dozen or fourteen, our people sustained 
their attack valiantly. But perceiving that another 
band of forty Iroquois, who were in ambush on the 
other side of the river, were crossing to fall on them, 
they lost heart, and like those who had been less 
engaged, they fled, abandoning their comrades in the 
melee. One Frenchman — Eene Goupil — since dead, 
being no longer supported by those who followed 
him, was taken, with some Hurons who had proved 
the most courageous. I saw this disaster from a 
place which effectually concealed me from the 
enemy, the thickets and reeds furnishing a perfect 
screen, but the thought of thus turning it to ac- 
count never entered my mind. Could I, I said to 
myself, leave our French, and these good neophytes, 
and these poor catechumens, without giving them 
the helps with which the true Church of God has 
entrusted me ? Flight seemed to me horrible. It is 
necessary, said I to myself, that my body should 
suffer the fire of this world to deliver these poor 
souls from the flames of Hell — it is necessary that 
it should die a momentary death to procure them life 
eternal. 

" My conclusion being thus taken without any great 
struggle in my mind, I called one of the Iroquois who 
was left behind to guard the prisoners. He, seeing 
me, was at first afraid to approach, fearing an am- 
bush. c Approach/ said I, ' fear nothing ; conduct 



'Narrative of Father Jogues. 245 

me to the French and Hurons you hold captive,' 
He advance's, and having seized me, adds me to the 
number of those who, in a worldly point of view, 
would be regarded as utterly wretched. Meanwhile, 
those who were chasing the fugitives led back some 
of them, and I confessed and made Christians of those 
who were not so. At last they led back that brave 
chief, Eustache, who cried out on seeing me, that he 
had sworn to live and die with me. Another 
Frenchman, named William Couture, seeing the 
Hurons take to flight, saved himself, like them, in the 
forest ; but remorse having seized him at the thought 
of abandoning his friends, and the fear of being 
thought a coward tormenting him, he turned to come 
back. Just then five Iroquois came upon him, one 
of whom aimed at him but without effect, his piece 
having snapped, on which the Frenchman instantly 
shot him dead. His musket was no sooner discharged 
than the four were on him in a moment, and having 
stripped him perfectly naked, well nigh murdered 
him with their clubs, pulled out his nails with their 
teeth, pounding the bleeding tips to cause greater 
agony ; and, finally, after stabbing him with a knife 
in one hand, led him to us in a sad plight, bound 
fast. On my seeing him I ran from my guards and 
fell on his neck, but the Iroquois seeing us thus ten- 
derly affected, though at first astonished, looked on 
in silence, till, all at once, thinking, perhaps, I was 
praising him for having killed one of their number, 



246 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

they ran at me with blows of their fists, with clubs, 
and with the stocks of their arquebuses, felling me 
to the ground half dead. "When I began to breathe 
again, those who, hitherto, had not injured me, 
came up and tore out the nails of my fingers with 
their teeth, and then bit, one after another, the ends 
of the two forefingers thus stripped of 'their nails, 
causing me great pain — grinding and cranching them 
to pieces, indeed, as if they had been pounded between 
two stones, so that fragments of the bones came out. 
They treated the good Rene Goupil in the same way, 
but they did no harm for the time to Hurons, so 
enraged were they at the French for not accepting 
peace on their terms the year before. 

" All being at last assembled, and their scouts having 
returned from chasing the fugitives, the barbarians 
divided their booty among themselves, rejoicing with 
loud cries. While they were thus engaged I re- 
visited all the captives, baptizing those who had not 
been so before, and encouraging the poor creatures, 
assuring them that their reward would far surpass 
their tortures. I perceived after making this round 
that we were twenty-two in number, not counting 
three Hurons killed on the spot. 

" Behold us, then, being led into a country truly 
strange to ns. It is true that, during the thirteen 
days we were on this journey, I suffered almost in- 
supportable bodily torments and mortal anguish of 
spirit ; hunger, burning heat — besides the impreca- 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 247 

tions and threats of these leopards in human shape — 
and in addition to these miseries, the pain of our 
wounds, which, for want of dressing, rotted till they 
bred worms, caused us much distress ; but all these 
things seemed light to me, in comparison with my in- 
ternal suffering at the sight of our first and most ardent 
Christians among the Hurons in such circumstances. 
I had thought they would be pillars of the new-born 
Church, and I saw them become victims of these 
bloodthirsty savages. 

" A week after our departure from the banks of the 
St. Lawrence, we met two hundred Iroquois in eager 
search for Frenchmen, or their Indian allies, wher- 
ever they could meet them. Unhappily, it is a belief 
among these barbarians, that those who are going to 
war are prosperous in proportion as they are cruel to 
their enemies ; and, I assure you, they made us feel the 
effect of this unfortunate opinion. Having perceived 
us they first thanked the sun for having caused us 
to fall into their hands, and those of their country- 
men, and then fired a salute in honour of their 
victory. This done, they went into the woods, to 
seek for clubs or thorns, as their fancy led them ; 
then, thus armed, they formed a lane, a hundred on 
each side, and made us pass, naked, down this bitter 
path of anguish, each one trying who could strike 
oftenest and .hardest. As I had to pass last, I was 
the most exposed to their rage, but I had hardly 
got half through, before I fell under the weight of 



248 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

this hail of reiterated blows ; nor did I try to rise ; 
partly, indeed, because I wished to die on the spot. 
Seeing me down, they threw themselves on me, and 
God alone knows the length of time I endured this, 
and the number of blows which were inflicted on my 
body, but sufferings borne for His glory are full 
of joy and honour ! The savages, seeiDg I had 
fallen, not by chance, but that I wished to die, took 
a cruel compassion on me, lifting me up, in the 
intention of keeping me so that I should reach their 
country alive, and then led me, all bleeding, to an 
open knoll. When I had come to myself they made 
me descend, tormented me in a thousand ways, made 
me the butt of their taunts, and recommenced beating 
me, letting off another hail of blows on my head, 
neck, and body. They then burned one finger, and 
cranched another with their teeth, and pressed and 
twisted those which were already mangled, with the 
rage of demons. They tore my wounds open with 
their nails, and when my strength failed they put 
fire to my arms and thighs. My companions were 
treated pretty nearly like myself. One of the bar- 
barians, advancing with a great knife, seized my nose 
in his left hand to cut it off, but, though he attempted 
this twice, he was hindered in some way from com- 
pleting his design. Had he done it, they would at 
last have killed me, for they always murder those 
who are much mutilated. 

" Having so far satisfied their bloodthirstiness on 



Narrative of Father Jognes. 249 

our poor frames, these savages departed to pursue 
their route, while we continued ours. 

" On the tenth day, we reached a place where it 
was necessary to quit the waterside and travel by 
land. This journey, which was about four days 
long, was very painful, he who was appointed to 
guard me not being able to carry all his plunder, and 
giving me a part to carry on my back, all flayed as 
it was. We ate nothing for three days but a little 
wild fruit, which we pulled in passing. The heat of 
the sun at the height of the summer, and our wounds, 
weakened us much, so that we had to walk behind 
the others, and they being much scattered, I told 
Bene he should try to save himself; but he would 
not leave me, though he could easily have got off. I, 
myself, could not think of forsaking my poor little- 
flock. On the eve of the Assumption we reached a 
small stream, a quarter of a league from the first 
town of the Iroquois, where we found the banks lined 
on both sides with a number of men armed with 
clubs, which they used on us with their wonted 
ferocity. There were only two of my nails remaining, 
and these they wrenched off with their teeth, tearing 
away the flesh underneath, and baring it to the very 
bones with their nails, which they let grow very long. 

" After they had thus satisfied their cruelty, they 
led us in triumph into this first village, all the young 
people being ranged in rows outside the gates, armed, 
some with sticks, others, with iron ramrods, which 



250 'Narrative of Father Jogues. 

they get from the Dutch.* They made us march — a 
Frenchman at the head, another in the middle, of the 
Hurons, and myself the last. We were made to fol- 
low one another at equal distances, and, that our tor- 
mentors might be the better able to beat us at their 
ease, some Iroquois threw themselves into our line to 
keep us from running off, or avoiding any blows. I was 
naked, with the exception of a shirt, like a criminal, 
and the others were entirely naked, except poor Rene 
Goupil, to whom they showed the same favour as to 
me. We were hardly able to reach the stage pre- 
pared for us in the middle of the village, so fearfully 
beaten were we ; our bodies livid and our faces 
bloody. Nothing white remained visible of Eene's 
face but his eyes, he was so disfigured. When 
mounted on the stage we had a short respite, except 
from their violent words, which did not hurt us, but 
it was soon over. A chief cried out that they must 
i fondle the Frenchman,' which was no sooner said 
than done — a wretch, leaping on the scaffold and 
giving each of us three great blows with a stick, 
but not touching the Hurons. Meanwhile, the 
others who were standing close to us, drawing their 
knives, treated me as the chief — that is, used me 
worst — the deference paid me by the Hurons having 
procured me this sad honour. An old man took my 
left hand, and ordered an Algonquin woman to cut 

* Probably the Dutch settlers in what is now the western 
part of New York State. 



Nt 1 1 ' r alive of Fatli er Jogues. 251 

off one of my fingers, which she did, after some re- 
luctance, when she saw she would be forced to obey, — 
cutting off my left thumb. They did this to the 
others also. I picked up my thumb from the scaffold, 
but one of my French companions told me that if 
they saw me with it they would make me eat it, and 
swallow it raw, and that I had better throw it away, 
which I did. They used an oyster-shell to cut the 
thumbs of the others, to give them more pain. The 
blood flowing so that we were like to faint, an 
Iroquois tore off a piece of my shirt and tied up the 
wounds, and this was all the bandage or dressing we 
got. When evening came we were brought down to 
be led to the wigwams to be made sport for the 
children. They gave us a little boiled Indian corn 
for food, and made us lie down on a piece of bark, 
tying, our arms and legs to four stakes fixed in the 
ground, like a St. Andrew's cross. The children, 
emulating the cruelty of their parents, threw burn- 
ing embers on our stomachs, taking pleasure in 
seeing our flesh scorch and roast. What hideous 
nights ! To be fixed in one painful position, unable 
to turn or move, incessantly attacked by swarms of 
vermin, with our bodies smarting from recent 
wounds, and from the suffering caused by older ones 
in a state of putrefaction, with the scantiest food to 
keep up what life was left ; of a truth these tor- 
ments were terrible, but God is great ! At sun- 
rise, for three following days, they led us back to 



252 Narrative of Father Jognes. 

the scaffold, the nights being passed as I have de- 
scribed." 



Thus far we have given the father's own words, 
and must condense what remains to be told : — 

After the three days were over the victims were 
led to two other villages, and exposed naked, under 
a burning sun, with their wounds untended, to the 
same miseries as they had passed through in the first. 
At the second, an Indian, perceiving that poor Cou- 
ture had not yet lost a finger, though his hands 
were all torn to pieces, made him cut off his own 
forefinger with a blunt knife, and when he could 
not sever it entirely the savage took and twisted 
it, and pulled it away by main force, dragging 
out a sinew a palm in length, the poor arm swell- 
ing instantly with the agony. At the third 
village, a new torture was added, by hanging 
poor Jogues by his arms, so high that his feet did 
not touch the ground; his entreaty to be released 
only making them tie him the tighter, till a strange 
Indian, apparently of his own accord, mercifully 
cut him down. At last some temporary suspen- 
sion of his sufferings approached. Fresh pri- 
soners arrived, and a council determined that the 
French should be spared, in order to secure advan- 
tages from their countrymen. Their hands being 
useless from mutilation, they had to be fed like in- 



'Narrative of Father Jogues. 253 

fants, but some of the women, true to the kindly 
nature of their sex, took pity on their sufferings, and 
did what they could to relieve them. Meanwhile, 
Couture was sent to another village, and Pere Jogues 
and Rene remained together. 

Unfortunately, however, of the three, only 
Couture could reckon upon the preservation of his 
life. It was the custom with these savages, that when a 
prisoner was handed over to some particular Indian, 
to supply a blank in his household, caused by the 
death of any of its members in battle, he was forth- 
with adopted as one of the tribe, and was thenceforth 
safe ; but as long as he was not thus bestowed, he 
might be killed, at the caprice of any one, without 
the least warning. Of the three, only Couture had 
been thus guaranteed security of life ; the two others 
felt that their existence still hung by a hair. Xor 
was this long without being put to a sad proof, for 
Rene — full of zeal for what he thought would benefit 
the souls of the young Indians — being in the habit of 
making on them the sign of the cross, had taken a 
child's hand before making the sign on its brow, when 
an old man, seeing him, turned to its father, and told 
him he should kill that dog, for he was doing to his 
boy what the Dutch had told them would not only 
do no good, but would do harm. The advice was 
speedily acted on ; two blows of an axe on his head, 
as the two were returning from prayer outside the 
village, stretched the martyr lifeless, and poor Rene's 



254 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

body was then dragged to the bed of a rivulet, from 
which a heavy storm washed it, through the night, so 
that his companion could never again find it. This 
was in September, 1642, two months after their leav- 
ing Three Elvers. The position of Father Jogues 
after this murder may easily be imagined. His life, 
he tells us, was as uncertain as the stay of a bird 
on a branch, from which it may fly at any moment. 
But the good man had devotion sufficient to bear 
him up, amidst all evil and danger. His mind, kept 
in constant excitement, found support in comforting 
dreams that soothed his slumbers. In these visions he 
would see, at times, the village in which he lived, 
and in which he had suffered so much, changed to a 
scene of surpassing glory, with the words of Scrip- 
ture, written over its gates, " They shall praise Thy 
name;" and at other times his thoughts in sleep 
would be brightened by the belief that the agonies 
he had endured were sent by his Father in Heaven 
to fit him for eternal joy, so that, he tells us, he 
would often say of them when he woke, " Thy rod 
and Thy staff they comfort me." 

At the beginning of winter he was, at last, given 
to a family as their slave, to attend them in the 
chase, to which they went off thirty leagues, staying 
two months at it. Cold though it then was, his only 
clothing all this time was a shirt and a poor pair of 
drawers, with leggings, and ragged shoes of soft 
leather. The thickets tore his skin, and his feet 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 255 

were cut by the stones, clods, and sharp edges of 
ice. Finding him useless in hunting, they set him 
to woman's work, requiring him to gather and bring 
in logs for the fire. Half naked, chapped and hacked 
in every part by the cold, this was a change he re- 
joiced in, as it gave him the great advantage of 
privacy, which, he tells us, he employed for eight 
and ten hours together in prayer, before a rude cross 
which he had set up. But his masters having found 
out how he spent his time, broke his cross, felled 
trees close to him to terrify him, and when he re- 
turned to the wigwam with his load, played him a 
thousand cruel tricks, to get him to desist. One 
would level his bow at him, as if about to shoot 
him ; another would swing his axe over his head, 
and tell him he must quit his charms. They de- 
clared that his sorceries spoiled their hunting ; and 
at last conceived such a horror of him, that they 
thought his touch pollution, and would not let him 
use anything in the wigwams. Had he been willing 
to join them in their ways, it would have fared 
differently with him ; but, starving as he had been, 
he refused to partake of the venison which they had 
in abundance, because they offered to the spirit of 
the chase all that they took. As soon as he knew of 
this, he told them plainly he could not eat what had 
been devoted to the devil ; and fell back on his boiled 
Indian corn. 

Having learned that some old people were about 



256 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

to return to the village, Jogues asked permission to 
go thither with them. They sent him, therefore, 
but without a tinder-box and without shoes, though 
the snow was now very deep on the ground, it being 
in December. Moreover, they made him carry a 
huge burden of smoked meat for the thirty leagues 
of journey they had to take, weak and wretched 
though he was. At one place, crossing a deep rivulet, 
over a felled tree, a squaw, who had an infant and a 
heavy load on her back, and was in poor health, 
slipped off and fell into the stream ; on which 
Jogues, seeing that her burden was making her 
sink, threw off his own, and plunged in, and cutting 
away the thongs, carried her to the bank, where the 
prompt kindling of a fire by the Indians alone saved 
the three from being frozen to death. The little child 
being very ill, he tells us " he baptized it forthwith ; 
and in truth," he adds, " sent it to Paradise, as it died 
two days after." However we may differ from him 
as to the efficacy of his act, we cannot withhold our 
admiration of the noble spirit that made him cling 
to what he thought a work of duty and love, even 
in his greatest trials. 

He had hardly reached the village when he was 
sent back again with a sack of corn, so heavy, that 
what with weakness and the slipperiness of the 
ground, he lost his way, and found himself back again 
in the camp before he knew where he was. This 
misadventure was a new cause of suffering for him. 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 257 

Every ill name that could be thought of was given 
him, and, what was much worse, he was put into a 
wigwam with the same man who had torn out his 
nails, and who was now lying in the utmost filth and 
wretchedness, through the effects of some putrid 
disease. For fifteen days he had to serve as a slave 
amidst these horrors, until his owners, returning from 
the chase, took him to their own dwelling. 

During the winter, he managed, at great risk, to 
visit the different villages of the Indians, to en- 
courage the Huron captives. His patience, mean- 
while, was gaining him the respect even of such 
monsters as these. The mother of his host seemed 
touched by his bearing, and this was increased by 
his kindness to one who had been among his most 
terrible enemies, but who was now lying covered 
with sores. Jogues visited him frequently, con- 
soled him in his illness, and often went to seek 
berries for him to refresh him. About March he 
was taken by his hosts to their fishing-ground — a 
deliverance from the noise of the village which was 
delightful to him, though he still had the same 
work of collecting and bringing in wood for the 
fire. He was now treated comparatively kindly, but 
even here he was in danger. A war-party had been 
gone for six months, and not having been heard of, 
were thought to have been destroyed, and this was, 
by at least one, who had a relative with it, attributed 
to the enchantments of the missionary. But, provi- 
s 



258 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

dentially, the day before lie was to have been killed, 
the warriors arrived, bringing twenty prisoners, in 
torturing whom Jognes was forgotten. They forth- 
with began public rejoicings; scorching, roasting, and, 
at last, eating these poor victims. " I think," says 
Jogues, " that the devils in hell must do something 
the same, at the coming of souls condemned to their 
names." 

At the end of April, a Sokokiois chief made his 
appearance in the Iroquois country, charged with 
presents, which he came to offer for the ransom of 
the missionary, who was known among the tribes by 
the name of Ondesson. The presents, he said, came 
from the French, and he had a letter from the 
governor for Ondesson. This embassy raised the 
credit of Jogues, and got him, for the time, some 
pity ; but they took the presents, and kept him still 
in captivity. At last, having been sent, in 1643, to 
a fishery, which was near a station of the Dutch, he 
was rescued from the clutches of his tormentors by 
their head man, who, however, having left shortly 
after, handed him to the care of a subordinate, at 
whose hands he suffered extremely from hunger and 
thirst, and from the fear of falling again into the 
power of the Iroquois. After a time, he was taken 
down the Hudson to what was then the settlement of 
Manhattan, but is now the city of New York, and 
from thence sailed to France, by way of England. 
On the 15th January, 1644, he returned to the 



Narrative of Father Jognes. 259 

college of his order, at Rennes. In the spring of 
1645, he was ready, once more, to return to Canada, 
and sailed from Eochelle to Montreal ; and peace 
having been made in the interval with the Iroquois, 
he was chosen as the pioneer of a new mission among 
them. On the 16th May, 1646, in company with 
French officials, he set out on a preliminary journey, 
to make the necessary preparations, and to ratify the 
peace, returning to Three Rivers in the end of June. 
Resolved to lose no time, now that the way was 
clear, in organizing his mission, though with a pre- 
sentiment that it would end in his death, he proceeded, 
three weeks after, once more on his way to the scene 
of his former sufferings, in company with a young 
Frenchman, in a canoe, taking with him some 
Hurons as guides. But he went only to meet the 
death he had foreboded. He had hardly reached 
the Iroquois country when he and his companion 
were attacked, plundered, stripped naked, and sub- 
jected to the same menaces and blows which he had 
experienced before. A letter from the Dutch traders, 
some time after, related how their captors, on the 
very clay of their arrival, told them they would be 
killed, adding, that they might be of good cheer, 
for they would not burn them, but would simply cut 
off their heads, and stick them on the palisades of 
the village, to let other Frenchmen, whom they ex- 
pected to take, see them on their coming. The 
immediate cause of their murder was, that the 
s2 



260 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

Indians insisted that Jogues Lad left the devil 
among some luggage he had given them to keep 
for him, and that their crop of Indian corn had 
thus been spoiled. On the 18th October, 1646, the 
end of his sufferings came at last. Having been 
called from his wigwam to the public lodge on thai 
evening, to supper, an Indian, standing behind the 
door, split his skull, and that of his companion, with 
an axe ; and on the morrow, the gate of the village 
was garnished with their disfigured heads. Only one 
division of the nation, however — that with which 
he lived, whose distinguishing sign or title was that 
of the Bear — seems to have been privy to their 
murder. The other two — the divisions of the Wolf 
and the Tortoise — resented the massacre, as if com- 
mitted on two members of their own tribes. 

And thus we take leave of the Jesuit martyr and 
his remarkable story. 



261 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The medicine-man — Painted faces — Medals — An embassy — 
Religious notions — Feast of the dead — Christian Indians — 
Visit to the Indians on Lake Huron — Stolidity of the 
Indians — Henry exorcises an Indian's rifle. 

The great man among all tribes of Indians that are not 
very greatly changed is the medicine-man — a kind of 
sorcerer who acts at once as priest and physician. 
Arrayed in a strange dress of bear-skins, or painted 
leather, with his head hidden in the scalp of some 
animal, or decorated with an extraordinary crest of 
feathers, this dignitary still reigns with more power 
than the chiefs in the outlying portions of British 
America. Their modes of treatment are strange 
enough. A poor infant in one of the settlements lay- 
ill of fever, and the mother, not knowing what to 
do for it, summoned the medicine-man to her aid. 
He came with his assistant, in full costume, and, 
having entered the wigwam where the poor little 
creature lay, in a bark cradle, filled with the dust of 
rotten wood, began his doctoring by hollowing a 
mystic circle in the ground round it, within which 
none but those he permitted were to enter. Then, 
taking a drum which he had with him, or rather a 
double tambourine, filled inside with little stones, he 



262 The Medicine-Man. 

commenced rattling it over the child, singing mean- 
while with all his might. The noise was enough 
to have given a fever to a person in health, and 
was fit to have killed a sick baby outright; but he 
kept thumping away, first at its ears — the little 
creature crying with fright — then at its back and 
its sides, till the sound was well-nigh deafening. 
Next came a mysterious course of deep breathing 
from the bottom of his stomach, all round the child's 
body, which completed his treatment. Strange 
to say, the child got better, and of course the 
faith in the conjuror greatly increased. " There 
was a black thing in its inside," he said, " which 
needed to be driven out, and he had done it by the 
noise and singing." It must, indeed, have been in 
spite of him, instead of by his help, that the poor 
child was restored. 

The dress of the Indians varies at different times, 
and according to the degree of civilization they have 
reached. Here and there you meet with one who 
has adopted European clothing, but these are rarely 
seen. They held a feast on a mound, by the road- 
side, in the summer after we went to the river — 
men, women, and children mustering to take part in 
it. Their clothing, excepting that of one or two, 
was about the same as usual — that is, a shirt and 
leggings, or the shirt only ; but their faces showed a 
most elaborate care in the " getting up." Paint of 
different colours was lavishly expended on them. 



Indian Dancing. 263 

One had his nose a bright blue ; his eyes, eyelids, 
and cheeks, black ; and the rest of his face a lively 
red. Others had streaks of red, black, and blue, 
drawn from the ears to the mouth. Others were all 
black, except the top of the forehead, and the parts 
round the ears, and the tip of the chin. Two lads 
amused me by the pride they evidently took in their 
faces; that of the one being ornamented by a stroke 
of vermilion, broad and bright, upward and down- 
ward, from each corner of the mouth, in a slanting 
direction; while that of the other rejoiced in a broad 
streak of red and blue, straight across his cheeks, 
from each side of his nose. The solemnities con- 
sisted of speeches from their orators, which were 
fluent enough, and were accompanied with a great 
deal of gesticulation, but were totally incomprehensible 
to me. Then followed a dance, in which all the men 
joined ; some women, sitting in the middle, beating 
a rude drum with a bone, while the men formed 
in a circle outside, and each commenced moving 
slowly round, lifting his legs as high as possible, at 
the risk, I thought, of throwing the dancer before 
him off his balance, by some unhappy accident, 
which, however, they were skilful enough to avoid. 
Meanwhile, the orchestra kept up a monotonous 
thumping, accompanied by a continuous grunting 
noise, which passed for singing. There could be 
nothing more ludicrous than to see them with all 
solemnity pacing round, each with a leg in the air, 



264 Indian Loyalty. 

as if they had been doing something awfully im- 
portant. Dancing ended, the reward of their 
labours followed. A huge kettle, hanging from a 
stout pole, over a fire close by, proved to have for its 
contents the carcase of a large dog — one of the many 
who prowl round all wigwams — but it must have 
been fattened for the occasion, as they are lean 
enough generally. Hands and mouths were the 
only implements for the repast, but they served the 
purpose. The poor dog made its way, with amazing 
rapidity, down the crowd of hungry throats ; but the 
sight so disgusted me that I hastily left them. 

The Indians are very loyal in every part of British 
America. A number of old men are still alive who 
hold medals for their services in the war of 1812-14 
with the United States, and very proud they are 
of them. I remember finding a deputation from 
some tribe returning from a visit to the Governor- 
General, on board one of the lake steamers, and was 
struck with the great silver medal, almost like a 
porter's badge, which the eldest wore on his breast, 
with the well-known profile of King George III. on 
it. By the way, one of the three or four Indians of 
the party was the handsomest man of the race I ever 
saw — tall, of full figure, with exquisite features, and 
soft curling hair. He must surely have been 
partly white. The dress they wore showed strikingly 
the meeting of the old wildness and the new civiliza- 
tion. That of the old bearer of the medal nnn si qted of 



Indian Loyalty. 265 

a very broad-brimmed, high- crowned, and broad- 
belted black hat — such a hat as I never saw except 
among the Indians, and which must have been made 
from a pattern specially designed to please them by 
its extraordinary size; a light brown shabby frock- 
coat, with very short tails and large brass buttons; 
a great white blanket thrown over it, and a pair of 
ordinary trowsers, with mocassins on his feet, com- 
pleting the costume. There was a great slit in his 
ears for ornaments ; a string of wampum hung round 
his neck, and in one hand lay a long Indian pipe, 
while, from the other, the skin of a fox, made into a 
tobacco-pouch, hung at his side. One of the others 
had leggings instead of trowsers, with broad bands 
of beads at the knees to fasten them, and a bag 
about the size of a lady's reticule, with a deep fringe 
of green threads nine or ten inches long, all round 
it, hung from his arm. I have no doubt that even 
the feeble remnant of the race that still survives 
would at once offer to fight for our Queen if their ser- 
vices should ever unfortunately be needed. u Their 
great mother across the waters" is the object of as 
much loyal pride to them as to any of her count- 
less subjects. Some years ago a United States 
officer was removing some Indians from the settled 
parts to the other side of the Mississippi, and had 
encamped one day, when he saw a party approach- 
ing. Taking out his glass, he found that they were 
Indians, and forthwith sent off an Indian from his 



266 Religious Notions. 

own band to meet them, with the stars and stripes 
on a flag. No sooner was the republican banner 
displayed than, to the astonishment of the officer, the 
strange Indian unrolled the Red Cross of St. Geoege, 
and held it up as that under which he ranged. The 
American wanted him to exchange flags, but he 
would not ; for, said he, " I live near the Hudson 
Bay Company, and they gave me this flag, and told 
me that it came from my great mother across the 
great waters, and would protect me and my wife and 
children, wherever we might go. I have found it is 
true as the white man said, and I will never part 
with it" 

One of the most intelligent Indians I ever met was 
a missionary among his countrymen in the Far West, 
who happened to be on a steamer with me. He gave 
me a great deal of information respecting the religious 
notions of his people, one part of which I thought 
very curious. He said that the Indians believed 
that, at death, the spirits of men went to the 
west, and came to a broad river, over which there 
was no bridge but the trunks of trees laid endwise 
across. On the farther side stretched prairies 
abounding with all kinds of game, and every possible 
attraction to the Indian, to reach which, every one, 
as he came, ventured on the perilous path that 
offered the means of getting over. But the wicked 
could not, by any means, keep their footing. The 
logs rolled about under them till they slipped into 



Feast of the Bead. 267 

the river, -which bore them hopelessly away. The 
good Indian, on the contrary, found everything easy. 
The logs lay perfectly still beneath his tread, some 
kind influence kept him safely poised at each 
treacherous step, and he landed safe and happy, 
amidst loud welcomes, on the amber bank beyond. 
The poor creatures seem to think that their friends 
need many things after death to which they have 
been used in life. Lonely graves may be often seen 
in the woods, or, perhaps, they only seem lonely 
from the others having sunk clown, and in them, as 
in those which are gathered together in the common 
burial-places of the different reserves, beneath a little 
birch-bark roof raised over them, the surviving 
friends put, periodically, presents of rice, tobacco, 
and other Indian delights. It used to be the habit 
in all parts of Canada, as I have been told it still is in 
the distant places of the Continent, to gather all 
the dead of a nation together, from time to time, and 
bury them in a common grave. Twelve years were 
allowed to pass, and then the old men and the no- 
tables of the different divisions of the tribe assembled 
and decided when they would hold " the feast," for 
so they called it, so as to please each section and the 
allied tribes as well. This fixed, as all the corpses 
had to be brought to the village where the common 
grave had been dug, each family made arrangements 
respecting its dead, with a care and affection which 
were very touching. If they had parents dead in any: 



268 least of the Bead. 

part of the country, they spared no pains to bring 
their bodies ; they lifted them from their graves, and 
bore them on their shoulders, covered with their best 
robes. On a given day the people of each village 
went to their own cemetery, where the persons who 
had charge of it — for there were parties appointed to 
this office — raised the bodies in presence of the sur- 
vivors, who renewed the grief they exhibited on the 
day of their first burial. All the corpses were ranged 
side by side, and, being uncovered, were exposed 
thus for a considerable time, that all around might 
see what they would themselves some day become. 
You may think what a sight this must have been ; 
Borne of the bodies mere skeletons, some like mum- 
mies, and others mere shapeless corruption. Those 
which were not reduced to skeletons were, after a 
little, stripped of their flesh and skin, which, with 
the robes in which they had been buried, were burned. 
The bodies which were still uncorrupted were 
merely wrapped in skins, but the bones, when 
thoroughly cleaned, were put in sacks or in robes, 
and laid on their shoulders, and then covered with 
another skin outside. The perfect corpses were 
put on a kind of bier, and, with all the rest, were 
taken each to its own wigwam, where the several 
households held, each, a feast to its dead. 

They have a curious idea respecting the soul, as 
the reason of this strange custom — at least those of 
them who, not being as yet Christians, still practise 



Feast of the Dead. 2G9 

it. They think that the dead have two souls, 
distinct and material, but each endowed with 
reason. The one separates itself from the body at 
death, and hovers over the burial-place, till the 
Feast of the Dead, after which it is turned into a 
turtle-dove, or goes straight to the Land of Spirits. 
The other is, as it were, attached to the body, and 
still remains in the common grave, after the feast is 
over, never leaving it unless to enter the body of an 
infant, which the likeness of many of the living to 
those who have died seems to them a proof that 
they do. 

When the feast is over, all the dead of each 
village are taken to a large wigwam, set apart for the 
purpose, and filled with poles and rods, from which 
the perfect bodies and the bags of bones are hung, 
along with countless gifts which the relatives present, 
in the name of the dead, to some of their living 
friends. This display of their riches accomplished, 
it remains only to take the ghastly loads to the 
common grave on the day appointed, which they do 
with frequent cries, which they say lighten the weight 
and secure the bearers from disease. At the central 
rendezvous, the same hanging of the corpses on 
poles, and the same display of presents, is again 
made, and, then amidst terrible cries and confusion, 
the whole are put into the general burial-pit, which is 
lined underneath with sable furs, to make the spirits 
happy in their homes in the other world. But they 



270 Christian Indians. 

do not bury the presents with them, nor the outer 
skins in which they were wrapped; these they retain 
for themselves. In some tribes, in former times, a great 
mound or barrow heaped over the spot marked the 
resting-place of the multitude, in others the ground 
was simply levelled, and then, after rejoicings in their 
own wild way till they were tired, the living crowd 
dispersed, each party to its own village.* 

A great change has come over the customs and 
feelings of many of the Indians, since missionaries 
went among them, and though in old settlements 
you often meet Pagans even yet, there are others 
who give the best proofs that they are true Chris- 
tians. It is delightful to see them on the Sabbath, 
wending their way, calm and in a right mind, to 
their lowly church, through the glades of the forest ; 
and wild though the sound often is, I have listened 
to their singing the glorious praises of God with an 
interest which I hardly ever felt in any more civilized 
gathering. One of the hymns which have been made 
expressly for them, and of which they are especially 
fond, has always struck me as particularly touching, 
by its exact appreciation of an Indian's feelings, and 
its remarkably skilful adaptation to their broken 
English. I feel sure it has never appeared in print 
before, at least in Britain, as I got it from a mis- 

* Nothing like this is done in Canada now, so far as I 
know; but in the " Relations des Jesuites" it is spoken of 
as the general custom. 



Indian Hymn. 271 

sionary in Nova Scotia, who knew the author, him- 
self a missionary, and told me it existed only in manu- 
script so far as he knew. Here it is : 

"THE INDIAN'S PRAYER. 

11 In de dark wood, no Indian nigh, 
Den me look heb'n, and send up cry, 

Upon ray knee so low ; 
Dat God on high, in shiny place, 
See me in night wid teary face, 

My heart, him tell me so. 

" Him send him angel, take me care, 
Him come himself, and hearum prayer, 

If Indian heart do pray. 
Him see me now, Him know me here, 
Him say, ' Poor Indian, never fear, 
Me wid you night and day.' 

11 So me lub God wid inside heart, 
He fight for me, He takum part, 

He sabe em life before. 
God lub poor Indian in de wood, 
And me lub He, and dat be good, 

Me pray Him two time more. 

u When me be old, me head be grey, 
Den Him no leab me, so Him say, 

' Me wid you till you die.' 
Den take me up to shiny place, 
See white man, red man, black man face, 
All happy 'like* on high." 

One day, in the second summer we were on 
the river, the clergyman asked me, in passing, if I 
would like to go up Lake Huron with him, on a 
missionary visit to a settlement of Indians, and of 

# L e. 9 alike. 



272 Lake Huron. 

course I told him I should. It was soon settled 
when we should start, which we did in a little boat, 
two men going with us to take charge of it. We 
had oars with us, but the boat was too heavy for 
their easy use, and we trusted to a sail, the cord 
from which one of us held in his hand, to prevent 
any sudden gust from upsetting us. We were soon 
out on the glorious Lake Huron, which, like all the 
great lakes, cannot be distinguished from the sea by 
ordinary eyes; but we did not attempt to get out of 
sight of the coast, intending to run into it if any 
sudden storm should rise. As darkness set in the 
sight overhead was beautiful beyond anything, I 
think, I ever saw. The stars came out so large and 
bright that it seemed as if you could see behind 
them into the depths beyond. They seemed to hang 
down like globes of light from the great canopy of 
the heavens. It was deliciously calm, the soft wind 
from behind, as it gently swelled the sail, serving to 
make the feeling of repose the more perfect. After 
sailing a day and a night, and the half of the next 
day, we at last reached the point where we were to 
land — a narrow tongue of sand, along which a 
stream, flowing through an opening in the sand-hills 
that line the coast, crept into the lake. It took us 
the rest of the afternoon to row as far as we wished, 
and to get our supper of beef and some hard eggs, 
with a cup of tea, without milk, which we got ready 
at a fire on the beach. The water we had to use 



A Night of Horrors. 273 

was our greatest trouble. It was nearly the colour 
of ink, from the swamps through which it had flowed, 
and made our tea the reverse of pleasant in taste ; 
but there was no choice, so that we made ourselves 
as contented as possible. Accommodation for the 
night was soon provided by stretching the sail over 
the mast, which was laid on two forked poles, a yard 
or so from the ground. This gave room for two ; 
the two others were to sleep on the ground without 
this apology for a covering. A huge fire, kindled 
close to us, served to keep off the mosquitoes, 
or rather was intended to do so. Wrapping an 
old buffalo robe, or a quilt, round each of us, we 
were soon stretched out to try to get sleep ; but its 
sweet delight kept far enough from us all. Oh ! 
the horrors of that night. The mosquitoes came 
down like the wolves on a fold, piercing through 
smoke and fire, and searching in the dark but too 
successfully for our noses, cheeks, and hands. The 
ants, too, were in myriads, and made their way up 
our boots to any height they thought proper. Once 
in, there was no getting these plagues out. We rose, 
went through every form of trouble to rid ourselves 
of them, but some still remained to torment us after 
each effort. Then the smoke itself was fit to make 
one wretched. It swept in, in clouds, as often as 
the fire was stirred. At last, however, morning 
came, and, with its first dawn, we were up for the 
day ; but what figures we presented ! My worthy 

T 



274 Negotiation with an Indian. 

friend's nose seemed to have been turned upside 
down in the night, the mosquito-bites having made 
it much thicker near the eyes than at the bottom. 
It was irresistibly laughable to us all, except the 
unfortunate bearer, who was really unwell, partly 
through the mosquitoes, partly through the exposure. 
Luckily for our breakfast, a Potowattomie Indian — 
a short old man, in a shirt, leggings, and mocassins, 
and crowned with a tremendous hat — came in sight 
as we were busy preparing it with some more 
of the villanous water. He was soon amongst us, 
desiring to see what we were, and what we were 
doing, and, fortunately for us, the contents of the 
kettle attracted his attention. With unmistakeable 
signs of disgust, he urged us to throw it out forth- 
with, and very kindly went to the side of the river, 
and, by scooping out the sand at the side, close to 
the stream, with his hands, obtained at once a little 
well of water clear as crystal, which we most 
gladly substituted for the liquid we had been using. 
Meanwhile, an animated negotiation was being 
carried on with our benefactor as to the terms he 
wished to make for guiding us to the Indian settle- 
ment — grunts and dumb show having to do the 
work of words. A few charges of powder and shot, 
at last, secured his services, and ere long, all being 
ready, we set out. Our route led us directly inland, 
over the huge barrier of sand, with which the edge 
of Lake Huron, at that part, is guarded. From its 



An Indian Settlement 275 

top we looked, far and near, over the forest, which, 
close at hand, was very miserable and stunted, from 
the hindrance to any chance of drainage offered by 
the hill on which we stood. At a distance, however, 
it rose in all its unbroken and boundless grandeur — 
the very image of vastness and solitude. Descending 
the inner slope, we were soon making the best of our 
way across the brown water of successive swamps, 
with thin trees felled, one beyond another, as the 
only bridges. " Mind your feet there, George," 
cried my friend, as I was making my way, Blondin 
fashion, across one ; but he had more need to mind 
his own, for the next minute he was up to the knees 
in water of the colour of coffee. An hour's walking 
brought us to the settlement, which consisted of a 
number of wigwams, raised among very small clear- 
ings, a log-house at one part marking the interpreter's 
house — himself an Indian. A messenger having been 
sent round, we had before long a congregation in the 
chapel, which was a log-house, without seats, but 
with a desk at the one end, the other being appro- 
priated, in great part, to the door, which was large 
enough to have served for the door of a barn. The 
squaws, in blankets, and blue cloth petticoats, and 
leggings, with large silver brooches on their bosoms, 
and bare heads, squatted down on the one side; 
the men, in all varieties of costume, from a shirt up- 
wards, took possession of the other; the door stand- 
ing open during the whole service, so that we, at the 
T 2 



276 Stolidity of the Indians. 

upper end, looked out into the forest, which was 
close at hand. The dogs, of course, formed part of 
the audience, some of them lying in the open space 
of the middle, and others at the door. One, which 
was more troublesome than the others during the 
service, walked straight up the middle, and stood 
looking the clergyman in the face, to his no small 
annoyance, but was soon made to suffer for his 
want of respect. One of the men rose, silently as a 
shadow, and slipped up behind the four- legged 
hearer till he came close to his long tail ; on this his 
hands closed in a moment, and then away went the 
poor brute, with a great swing, over his head, 
in a succession of summersaults to the door, out 
of which, when it reached the ground, it rushed 
with prolonged howls, and was seen no more 
while we were there. Not a countenance moved 
while this extraordinary ejectment was being 
effected, and the Indian himself resumed his place 
as solemnly as if he had been performing only an 
ordinary duty. It was very slow work to speak 
through the interpreter, but the Indians sat it out 
with patient fortitude, trying as it must have been 
to these wild creatures, so little prone to sedentary 
occupation, to listen to such a tedious process. A 
walk back, after all was over, brought us to our 
boat, which we had left on the beach, and in due 
time, after a pleasant sail, we swept down the St. 
Clair once more, glad enough to get safely home again. 



Stolidity of the Indians. 277 

The perfect stolidity of the Indians under any 
amount of excitement is wonderful — unless, indeed, 
under the influence of whiskey, or excited by the 
pursuit of hunting — for, usually, you might as well 
expect to move the features of an image as theirs. 
When railroads were introduced into Canada, they 
were a source of wonder to every one who had 
not seen them, the Indians alone excepted. They 
did not even spare a grunt, but marched into the 
carriages with the same composure as if they had 
been familiar with them from their childhood. In 
any house they may enter, you can detect no sign of 
curiosity, still less of wonder, in any of their move- 
ments. The same cast-iron physiognomy is kept 
from the first to the last, whatever objects of interest 
you may have to show them. 

It is very hard for us to realize how difficult it is 
to get a new idea into such minds. A minister of 
my acquaintance, who lived among the Indians, told 
me what great trouble he had to teach them the use 
of a mill. He had got them to grow some wheat, 
and to cut it down, by doing a large part of the 
work himself; and when the time came to turn it 
into flour, he had to help to put it into sacks, to help 
to get it into a canoe, to go with them to the mill, 
to show them how to give it to the miller, get back 
the flour, get it put into the sacks again, and then into 
the canoe, and paddle home. Every thing had to be 
acted before they would do it themselves. 



278 Indian Superstition. 

As might be expected, they are superstitious in 
proportion to their ignorance. One day, an Indian 
came to Henry in great distress, telling him his gun 
was bewitched, and could not shoot straight, and 
asking him if he could make it right. Henry, of 
course, knew that the poor fellow was only labouring 
under a delusion, and at once told him he would 
make it all right. He, therefore, asked him to let 
him have it for the night, his wish being to have an 
opportunity of cleaning it thoroughly. Having made 
it all right, on the Indian's return he handed it to 
him, with all solemnity, telling him it was perfectly 
cured now. " Me shoot ten days — get nothing," 
said the unfortunate sportsman. "It's all right, 
now, though," replied Henry, assuring him, besides, 
that there were no more witches about it. Some- 
time after, we were surprised by an Indian's coming 
to the house with the hind legs of a deer, telling us 
they were from the Indian for the " man cured gun." 
Henry was from home at the time, and as he had 
said nothing about his unbewitching the weapon, the 
gift was a mystery until his return. The gratitude 
shown for so small a favour was very touching, and 
impressed us all in the Indian's favour. He must 
have published Henry's wonderful powers, as well as 
rewarded them, for that same winter another Indian 
came to him in the woods, where he happened to be, 
with the same story, that his rifle was bewitched, and 
would not shoot. With a good deal of sly humour, 



Indian Superstition. 279 

Henry determined to play the conjuror this time, as 
he had no chance of getting the weapon home. He 
therefore told the Indian to sit down, and then drew 
a circle round him and the infected rifle, and pro- 
ceeded to walk mysteriously round him, uttering all 
the while any amount of gibberish he could think of, 
and making magic passes in all directions. After 
repeating this a number of times, he took the rifle 
into his hands, and proceeded to examine it carefully, 
and seeing that it was in perfect order, he announced 
the ceremony to be complete, and handed it back 
again, with the assurance that he was not to be afraid 
of it, that he had only to take a good aim, and that 
there were no witches about it now. The Indian 
grunted thanks, and made off; and Henry heard no 
more of it till, some months after, when he happened 
to be in a neighbouring Tillage, the subject of his 
charms, to his siuprise, came up to him, and told 
him " he must be great doctor — Indian's gun shoot 
right ever since he cured it." Henry answered that 
it had needed no cure, and that he had only done 
what he did because the Indian would not have 
believed his rifle was right if he had not done some- 
thing. THiat the effect was on the Indian's notions 
I know not, but we certainly heard no more of 
bewitched rifles. 



280 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The humming-bird — Story of a pet — Canada a good country 
for poor men — A bush story of misfortune — Statute 
labour — Tortoises — The hay season — Our waggon -driving 
— Henry and I are nearly drowned — Henry falls ill — 
Backwood doctors. 

It was in May of the second year I first noticed 
the humming-bird. There are different species in 
Canada in summer, but all seem equally beautiful. 
When I first saw one, it was like a living gem, 
darting hither and thither in the open round the 
house, never resting but for a few moments, while 
it poised itself on its lovely wings, which seemed 
motionless from the very rapidity of their vibration. 
No bird flies so fast, small though it be, so that it is 
impossible to follow it as it darts from spot to spot. 
Later in the season, a bunch of flowers, at an open 
window, was pretty sure to bring one quivering over 
them, preparatory to thrusting its long thin bill into 
the cups, to drink the sweets that lay at the bottom. 
Sometimes in the evenings, they might be seen, for 
half an hour at a time, darting at the little clouds of 
flies which dance in the air, under the branches of 
the trees, or in the open, — retiring to a twig to rest 
when tired. They seem, for a great part of their 
time, to feed on such insects, the stomach of several 



The Humming-bird. 281 

humming-birds I have heard, having been found 
full of them when opened. There is a charming 
account in a Philadelphia magazine of one which 
shewed greater familiarity with man than has ever 
been known from any other of its species.* One of 
the young ladies of a family was sitting at an open 
window, when a humming-bird flew in, very feebly, 
and dropped on the floor, apparently exhausted. To 
pick it up was the work of a moment; and the 
thought that it might be tired and hungry, after a 
long flight, forthwith set its friend to try whether 
she could tempt it to eat anything. Mixing some 
cream and sugar, and pouring a little of it into the 
cup of a bell-shaped flower, the beautiful creature, 
to her great delight, at once began to sip, and gather- 
ing strength as he did so, by and by flew off through 
the window once more. Next day, and every day 
thenceforth, through the summer, the little thing 
came back about the same time, for another repast, 
fluttering against the window, if it happened to be 
shut ; and whenever he had not got enough, flying 
backwards and forwards close at hand, in great rest- 
lessness till a fresh supply had been manufactured. 
It did not matter who was in the room, the sight of 
the flower held out brought him in, when he was 
waiting for his meal; indeed, his natural timidity 
seemed to have been entirely laid aside. Late in 
the season, a day passed without his visit, and they 
* Quoted in Gosse's " Canadian Naturalist. " 



282 Canada good for the Poor. 

found that, in all probability, lie had flown off to the 
south for the winter. Whether he came back again 
the next spring has not been recorded. 

Some of the settlers in the bush, back from the 
river, were striking examples of the benefits a poor 
man may get from coming to such a country as 
Canada. I used often to go back on various errands, 
and was always delighted with the rough plenty of 
farmers who, not many years ago, had been labourers 
at home, with only a few shillings a week for wages. 
Now, by steady labour and sobriety, many amongst 
them were proprietors of a hundred acres of excellent 
land, and sat down at each meal to a table which 
even well-to-do people in England are not in the 
habit of enjoying. But there were some cases of 
failure, which no less strongly brought the peculiar 
circumstances of the country before me. Ten 
miles away from us, and lying back from the river, 
a person who had been a baker in London, but had 
determined to turn farmer, had settled some years 
before. He built a log-house, and cleared a patch, 
but it was slow work, as he had to bring on his back 
all the flour and potatoes, or what his household 
needed, the whole way from the river, through the 
forest, over swamps, and every other difficulty that 
lay in his road. After a time he fell ill of fever and 
ague — the great curse of new or low-lying districts 
in Canada and the States. For eight months he 
could do no work, and meanwhile his family were 



A Bush Story of Misfortune. 283 

driven to the greatest straits to keep themselves 
alive. At last, he was able to get about once more. 
Everything was behind with him, but he was still 
unbroken in spirit. But now came a new trial: 
a great tree, which had been left standing near 
his house, fell down across it, breaking in the 
roof, though fortunately without killing any one. 
The axe and patience offered the means of escaping 
from this misfortune also; and, before long, the tree 
was removed, and the shattered dwelling restored. 
For awhile all went on well enough after he had thus 
once more got on his feet. But his troubles were 
not yet at an end. Coming home one night with a 
heavy load, on his weary ten miles' road from the 
front, in crossing a swamp on a round log, his foot 
slipped, and a sharp stake ran through his boot deep 
into the flesh, impaling him, as it were, for a time. 
How he got home I know not, but of course he left 
his load behind him, and had to crawl to his house 
as best he could. This last calamity fairly crushed 
his hopes of success ; and, on recovering, he aban- 
doned his land, moved with his family to a town 
eighty miles off, and took service at his old trade, 
in which, after a time, he was able to recommence 
business on his own account. 

When the roads got pretty dry in the summer 
time, we were all summoned by the " pathmaster" 
of our neighbourhood — a dignitary who is elected 
annually to superintend the repairs of the different 



284 Statute Labour. 

roads — to do our statute labour. As money to pay 
a substitute was out of the question, we had, of 
course, ourselves to shoulder shovels, and turn out 
for the six days' work required of us. My three 
elder brothers, and a number of neighbours, were on 
the ground on the day appointed, but they were an 
hour or two later than they would have required any 
labourers they might have hired to have been, and they 
forthwith commenced their task. It was amusing to see 
how they managed to get through the time, what with 
smoking, discussing what was to be done, stopping 
to chat, sitting down to rest, and all the manoeuvres 
of unwilling workers. A tree had to be cut up at 
one part and hauled together for burning off; a 
ditch dug from nowhere to nowhere, at some other 
point; a bridge to be repaired, at a third, by 
throwing a log or two across it, in the places from 
which broken ones had been drawn out ; a mud 
hole filled up, at a fourth ; and the corduroy road, 
over a swamp, made more passable, at a fifth, by 
throwing a large quantity of branches on it, and 
covering them deeply with earth, so as to get a 
smooth surface. " I guess I've done more for the 
Queen, nor she's done for me," said John Courtenay, 
as he sat down for the tenth time. " I'll take it 
easy now, the boss is up the road," the " boss" being 
the pathmaster, who had gone off to another gang 
at some distance. You may be sure our engineering 
was very poorly done, but it was all we had to look 



Tortoises. 285 

to to keep the roads passable at all in the wet 
"weather. The vacant lots, every here and there, 
-were the greatest hindrance to any improvements 
9 worthy the name, nobody caring to repair the road 
through an absentee's land, though all suffered from 
its being neglected. 

There were a number of tortoises in the ponds in 
the woods and by the roadside, and they used to give 
us a good deal of amusement. They were of all 
sizes, but generally not very large, and were really 
beautiful in the markings of their shells, when you 
had them close at hand. But to get near enough 
for this was the difficulty. They used to come out 
of the water, in the middle of the day, to sun them- 
selves, or to sleep, on the dry logs which lay over 
it, and the great point was to try to keep them 
from plumping off in an instant, rather than making 
to the land. It was all but hopeless to try it, but 
we would not give it up. Sometimes we came upon 
them, away from the water a little, and then we had 
it all our own way with them. They move very 
awkwardly on the ground, and seem too stupid to do 
even as much as they might, but they must not be 
handled incautiously, for they give terrible snaps 
with their horny mouths, which are like the sides of 
a smith's vice for hardness and strength of hold. A 
poor Scotchman who came out one summer, found 
out this to his cost. He had been coming down the 
road, and saw a large tortoise, or ' ; mud turtle," as 



286 Tortoises. 

the Canadians call them, apparently sound asleep at 
the edge of the creek. Of course, he thought he had 
come on a treasure, and determined to catch it if 
possible. Stealing, therefore, breathlessly, up to the 
spot, he made a grab at it before it suspected danger, 
and in a minute had it swinging over his shoulder 
by its foreleg. The leg was short, and the round 
shield that covered the creature was therefore close 
up to his head. He thought he would take it home, 
and show the good folks this wonder of the woods ; 
perhaps he thought of taming it, or of making combs 
for his wife out of its back shell. At any rate, 
on he jogged quite proud of his acquisition. He 
would soon get over the five miles more he had to 
walk, and then what excitement there would be at 
the sight of such a creature. But, by this time, the 
turtle had recovered presence of mind enough to look 
round him, and accordingly poked his head out, and 
in doing so came invitingly close to his captor's ear, 
on which his two jaws closed in a moment. If 
ever a prisoner had his revenge he had it. The 
Scotchman might have pulled his ear off, in trying 
to get free, but nothing short of that seemed of any 
use. He could not let go the leg, for that would 
leave the whole weight of the turtle hanging from 
his ear, and he could not keep his arms up without 
getting cramps in them. But he had to try. In 
misery, with his wretched ear bent down close to the 
shell, and his hands immovably raised to the same 



Tortoises. 287 

shoulder the whole way, he had to plod on, the 
whole distance, to his house, where his appearance 
created no small alarm as he came near. Nothing 
could even then be done to loosen the creature's 
hold ; it was like a vice, — until at last they managed 
to relieve him, by getting the head far enough out 
to cut it off, after which the jaws were at last parted, 
and the sufferer allowed to tell his luckless adventure. 
One of our neighbours used to shock our notions of 
propriety by eating the "turtles" he caught. " There 
are fish, there are flesh, and there are fowl on a 
turtle," he used to say in his bad English, in 
describing their charms, but the worthy Manksman 
got no one to join him in his appreciation of them. 
The Indians have a kind of religious veneration for 
them, and would not, on any account, do them any 
harm. I knew one who acted as interpreter at a 
missionary station, who used to say that the hardest 
trial he had had, after he became a Christian, was 
one day in summer, when, having pounced upon a 
tortoise, he took it on his back to carry it home, and 
was overtaken by a dreadful storm of thunder and 
lightning. He said that he could hardly get over the 
thought, that it was because he had offended the 
sacred creature, and this notion fairly made him per- 
spire with terror ; but he had the courage to resist 
his alarm, and after the sky had cleared, he lifted it 
once more on his shoulder, and went home resolved 
never to yield to fear of such a kind again. 



288 The Ray Season. 

The hay in the neighbourhood was mown about 
the end of June, and as our own supply was, as yet, 
far short of our requirements, we had to buy a quan- 
tity. To get it cheaper, we undertook to send our 
waggon to the field for it, and bring it home our- 
selves. Henry and I were detailed for this service, 
and started one morning with the oxen and the 
waggon, a frame of light poles having been laid on 
the ordinary box to enable us to pile up a suffi- 
cient load. I had to get inside, while Henry forked 
ip the hay from the cocks on the ground, my part 
oeing to spread it about evenly. We got on famously 
till the load was well up in the frame, the oxen 
moving on from one cock to another, through the 
stumps, at Henry's commands, but without any 
special guidance. All at once, while they were 
going at the rate of about two miles an hour, the 
wheels on one side gradually rose, and before I could 
help myself, over went the whole frame, hay and all, 
on the top of Henry, who was walking at the side. 
The oxen had pulled the load over a hillock at the 
foot of a stump. I was sent clear of the avalanche, 
but Henry was thrown on his back, luckily with his 
head and shoulders free, but the rest of his body em- 
bedded in the mass. Neither of us was hurt, how- 
ever, and we laughed heartily enough, after we had 
recovered our self-possession, the first act being to 
stop the oxen, who were marching off with the four 
wheels, as solemnly as ever, and had no idea of 



Henry and I nearly Drowned. 2S9 

coming to a halt without orders. Of course we had 
to clear the frame, get it set up again on the waggon, 
and fork up all the hay once more, but we took care 
of the oxen the second time, and met no more 
accidents. 

Henry and I were very nearly drowned, shortly 
after this, in that great lumbering canoe of ours, by 
a very ridiculous act on our own parts, and an 
unforeseen roughening of the water. Some bricks 
were needed to rebuild the chimney, and they could 
not be had nearer than the opposite side of the riyer. 
Henry and I, therefore, set off in the forenoon to get 
them, and crossed easily enough. We went straight 
over, intending to paddle down the shore till we 
reached the place where the bricks were to be had, 
about two miles below. Having nothing to hurry 
us, and the day being uncommonly bright and beau- 
tiful, we made no attempt to be quick, but drew 
the canoe to the land, and sallied up the bank to 
get some ears of Indian corn which were growing 
close by, and offered great attractions to our hungry 
stomachs. At last, after loitering by the way for an 
hour or two, we reached our destination, bought 
the bricks, and paddled our canoe some distance up 
a stream to get near them, that we might the more 
easily get them on board ; but ignorance is a bad 
teacher, even in so simple a matter as loading a 
canoe with bricks. We had no thought but how to 
pack them all in at once, so that we should not have 
u 



£90 Henry and I nearly Browned. 

to come over again, and kept stowing them in all the 
way along the canoe, except at each end, where we 
reserved a small space for ourselves. When the 
whole had been shipped, we took our places — Henry 
at the bows, on his knees ; I at the stern, on a seat 
made of a bit of the lid of a flour-barrel — each of us 
with his paddle. It was delightful to steer down 
the glassy creek, and when we turned into the river, 
and skirted up close to the banks, it seemed as if we 
were to get back as easily as we came, though Henry 
just then bade me look over the side, telling me that 
the canoe was only the length of a forefinger out of 
the water, and, sure enough, I found it was so ; but 
we never thought it boded any danger. In smooth 
water one is not apt to think of the rough that may 
follow. We got along charmingly for a time, under 
the lee of the land, which made a bend out, some 
distance above our house, on the American side ; we 
determined to allow a good deal for the current, and 
go to this point, before we turned to cross. Unfor- 
tunately for us, in our ignorance of the proper 
management of a canoe under difficulties, a. great 
steamer, passing on to Chicago, swept up the stream, 
close to us, just as we were about to strike out for 
home, and the swell it raised made the water run 
along the edge of the canoe, as if it were looking 
over and wanted to get in. It lurched and twisted, 
got its head wrong, and all but filled, even with this 
slight agitation. We had got over this trouble when 



Henry and I nearly Droioned. 291 

we found, to our alarm, on getting out from the 
shelter of the land, that the wind was getting up, 
freshly enough to make the mid-stream quite rough. 
If we had known the extent of our danger we would 
have turned back and unloaded some of our cargo, 
but no such notion occurred to us. We therefore 
determined to make the best of our way across ; but 
it was easier determined than done. The wind and 
the short chopping waves together very soon took 
the management of our frail bark out of our hands, 
twisting the canoe round and round, in spite of all 
our efforts. Every little while we would get into 
the trough of the stream, and the water would run 
along from the bow to the stern, shining over the 
few inches on which depended our hope and life ; 
then, some would find its way in. The bricks got 
quite wet. The empty space in which I sat was 
filled to my ankles with water, and Henry shouted 
that it was the same at his end. " Paddle hard, 
George, for your life — paddle, paddle, and we may 
get over;" and paddle both of us did, at the very 
top of our strength. We must have been making 
way swiftly, but owing to the noise of the wind, and 
the confusion of mind we were in, for neither of us 
could swim a stroke, we could not find out whether 
we made any progress, and, to add to our bewilder- 
ment, round went the head of the canoe the wrong 
way once and again, in spite of us. " Shall I throw 
out the bricks, Henry ?" I cried. " Yes, if you can ; ' 
u2 



292 Henry falls III 

but it was next to impossible to do it. I did, indeed, 
manage to toss two or three over, but I was helms- 
man, and my giving up my paddle left us helplessly 
whirling round. Henry had his back to the bricks, 
and of course could do nothing. He, therefore, kept 
paddling as hard as ever. Seizing my paddle, I 
joined my efforts to his, and, after a time, found, to 
my great joy, that the water was changing colour — 
a sure sign that we were much nearer land than we 
had been a little while before. A few minutes more, 
and we saw the bottom, and knew we were safe ; 
but not so the bricks. The canoe sank before reach- 
ing the bank, immersing us to the middle, and 
though we dragged it to the land, the bricks were 
in so bad a state that, from our neglecting to take 
special pains with them, a great many mouldered 
into red earth. 

This was my only dangerous adventure with our 
large coffin of a canoe, but many a hard pull I have 
had with it. Poor Henry gave me one tough day's 
work, much against his will. He had been working 
in the field, and, being very warm, had drunk a 
large quantity of water, which brought on very 
painful cramps of the stomach. There were none 
but our two selves and the girls at home, and the 
nearest place to procure medical advice was at the 
village where I had got the bricks, across the river. 
There was no time to be lost ; Henry was alarmingly 
ill, so away I went with the canoe, paddling as hard 



American Titles, 293 

as I could, and got to my destination pretty quickly. 
But to get the " doctor" was the difficulty. I found 
" Major" Thompson, whom I knew by sight, stand- 
ing in his shirt- sleeves at the door of the coffee- 
house he kept, and I asked him if he could tell me 
where I should find the medical man. " Good 
morning, doctor," said the " Major," in answer — I 
was no more a doctor than he a major, but the 
Americans are fond of assuming and bestowing, titles 
— " I don't know, p'raps he's to home — jist ask 
Ginral Northrop, yonder, if he's seen him come out 
this morning ?" The gentleman to whom I was thus 
directed proved to be the leader of the choir in the 
village chapel, and followed some trade, but what, I 
don't know. He was dressed in a great broad straw 
hat, blue shirt, linen trowsers, and boots, and was 
very busy loading a cart with furniture at a door up 
the street. He was very courteous when I got up to 
him. " I guess," said he, " you'll be all right ; I calcu- 
late he's not about yet ; just go down the street, and 
turn round that there fence corner, and you'll easy 
find his place." Thither I went, and was fortunate 
enough to find the old man, who, in spite of a 
dissipated and miserable look, seemed to know 
his profession. I could only suppose that he must 
have been driven to such a place from pure necessity. 
He gave me some stuff from a dispensary, as strange 
and uncouth as that of the apothecary in " Romeo 
and Juliet:" — 



294 Backwood Doctors. 

M About his shelves 
A beggarly account of empty boxes, 
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds, 
Remnants of packthread * * * 
Were thinly scattered." 

Into this sanctum I was taken by the back-door, 
and found it, in reality, more a lumber-room than a 
shop, for the window made no sort of display, and, 
everywhere, dirt reigned in undisturbed possession. 
Having got the medicine, I quickly regained the 
canoe, and paddled home as rapidly as possible. 
But, instead of getting better, poor Henry seemed 
rather to get worse, so that I had to set off a second 
time, with a long account of the symptoms, on paper, 
to hand to the doctor. This time, thank God, he hit 
on the right prescription, and I had the unspeakable 
pleasure of seeing the poor sufferer greatly relieved 
by an infusion we got made for him when I returned. 
I verily believe that if he had had no one to go over 
the river for him he must have died. 

The want of sufficient medical help, and too often 
the inferior quality of what you can get, is one 
of the greatest evils of living in the backwoods. 
Henry all but died a year or two after this, from the 
treatment he had to undergo at the hands of a self- 
styled doctor, who came to the neighbourhood for a 
time, and left it when his incompetency was found 
out. The illness was a very serious one — brain 
fever — and the treatment resorted to was bleeding 
and depletion, till life ^nearly ebbed away from 



Bachvood Doctors. 295 

sheer exhaustion. The poor fellow was made to take 
medicine enough almost to kill a strong man ; and was 
so evidently sinking, that the other inmates of the 
house determined to send over for old Dr. Chamber- 
lain, who had before saved him, when I went to him. 
11 Killed with too much medicine," was all he said, 
when he had seen the wasted form of the patient, and 
heard the story ; " if he should get through it, it 
will be in spite of what has been done, not by its 
means." He did get through, but it was a long, 
weary struggle. I have known a person come 
twenty miles in search of a medical man for his 
wife, and when he reached his house, be bitterly 
disappointed to find the doctor off ten miles in an 
opposite direction. Mr. Spring, up the river, had 
good cause to remember his being at the mercy of an 
uneducated practitioner. He was going in the dark, 
one winter night, to a friend's house, about two 
miles off, when suddenly slipping on a piece of ice, 
he fell violently on his knee. Trying to rise, he 
found he had injured the cap, so that he could not 
walk. He had, therefore, to crawl back home again 
in the keen cold of a Canadian night, along the road, 
over the field, and do^n the steep bank, all covered 
thickly with snow. The "doctor," who lived five 
miles off, was, of course, sent for next morning 
as early as possible. But it would, perhaps, have 
been better if he had never been sent for at all, for 
he bandaged the leg so tightly as almost to bring on 



296 Bachoood Doctors. 

mortification ; and this he did, too, without attempt- 
ing to bring the broken parts together. The result 
was a hopelessly stiff leg, after the sufferer had 
endured many weeks of pain. 

We had occasional visits of gentlemen, who joined 
the medical profession with other pursuits. They 
would cure a fever, or act as dentists, and announced 
their arrival by calls from house to house. A 
friend of mine, who had unfortunately lost a front 
tooth, thought he had better take advantage of such 
an opportunity, especially as he was going in a short 
time up Lake Huron to a public dinner. " But," 
said he, when relating the circumstance, " the fellow 
was a humbug ; he put in a hickory peg to hold the 
new tooth, and when I was in the middle of my 
dinner it turned straight out, and stuck before me, 
like a tusk, till I got it tugged out." 

There was a medical man of a very different 
stamp who came among us some years after this, 
when I had left the river, and of whom I have heard 
some curious stories. Dr. White — let that be his 
name — had been in large practice in Ireland, but 
had unfortunately fallen into dissipated habits, 
which compelled him to emigrate. To raise the 
means of reaching Canada, his wife had sold an 
annuity she enjoyed on her own life, after his 
engaging that he would give up his intemperate 
habits. He first settled in one of the towns, but 
afterwards came to our part, and bought a farm, 



Bachuood Doctors, 297 

intending to help his income by working it. His 
old habit, however, to the regret of all, broke out 
again, and destroyed his prospects, in spite of his 
being looked up to throughout the district, as the 
best " doctor" in it. People often came from a 
distance to consult him, and were doomed to find 
him helpless ; and this, of course, speedily ruined his 
practice. Instances of his skill, however, still linger 
in the minds of many in the settlement, accompanied 
with great regret, that a man at once so clever and 
comely should have been so great an enemy to 
himself. He had a rough humour sometimes, when 
he was a little under the influence of drink, which 
was very diverting. Henry was one night at his 
house in the winter, when a rap came to the door. 
The others being busy, Henry rose to open it, and 
found two men, who had come through the frightful 
cold to get the doctor's assistance. The one, it 
appeared, could not speak, from some abscess or boil 
in his throat, which he had come to get lanced or 
otherwise treated. On being taken into the hall, 
which had a stove in it, and was comfortable 
enough, the doctor made his appearance, and walked 
up to the sufferer with a candle in his hand. 
" What's the matter with you ?" The patient 
simply opened his mouth wide, and pointed 
into it with his fingers. "Let me see," said 
"White. "Open your mouth, sir" — taking the 
candle out of the candlestick, and holding it close to 



298 Bachvood Doctors* 

the poor fellow's face. The mouth was, of course, 
instantly opened as widely as possible, and the 
blazing candle was as instantly sent dash into it, as far 
as it would go, raising a yell from the patient that 
might have been heard over the next farm, which was 
followed by a rush outside the door to clear his mouth, 
as he seemed half choked. " Bring a light here," 
cried White, coming to the door quite coolly. 
" How do you feel, sir ?" The blow with the soft 
candle, the fright, and the yell, all together, had 
wrought a miracle on the poor fellow. His trouble 
was clean gone. " I'm better, sir— what's to pay ?" 
"Nothing at all," replied White; "good night to 
you," and the scene was over. Henry laughed, as 
he well might, at such an incident ; and after a while 
ventured to ask the doctor if there were no instru- 
ments that would have done ? " Certainly there are, 
but do you think I'd dirty my instruments on a 
fellow like that ? the candle would do well enough." 
Poor White died some time after, through intem- 
perance. His widow and family were enabled to get 
back to Ireland by the sale of all the effects he had; 
and on their arrival, his friends took charge of the 
children, and the widow went out as a governess to 
India. 



299 



CHAPTER XVIII, 

American men and women — Fireflies — Profusion of insect 
life — Grasshoppers — Frederick and David leave Canada — 
Soap-making — Home-made candles — Recipe for washing 
quickly — Writing letters — The parson for driver. 

As the delicious nights of summer drew on again, it 
was a pleasure of which we never wearied to ride over 
to some neighbour's to spend an hour or two. The 
visit itself was always delightful, for we could not 
have wished better society, but the unspeakable 
loveliness of the road was no less so. We very soon 
got a couple of horses, everyone else having them, 
for no one in Canada ever thinks of walking if he 
can help it. I have often wondered at this, for the 
same persons who would not stir a step, if possible, 
in Canada, without a horse, or some conveyance, 
would have been fond of walking if they had re- 
mained in Britain. It cannot be because they have 
horses in the one country and had none in the other, 
for, in towns, there is no such liking for walking, 
though there are few who either own or can borrow 
a horse or vehicle, and those in the country who have 
neither will send in all directions to ask the loan of 
a neighbour's horse rather than walk a few miles. 
Probably the great heat cjf summer renders the exer- 



300 American Men and Women. 

tion of walking irksome to most people ; and, on the 
other hand, in winter, the cold and the snow are such 
hindrances as to throw them out of the habit of it. 
There seems no doubt besides, that the effect of the 
climate on Europeans is to enfeeble them gradually, 
though they may not exhibit any symptoms of rapid 
decay, or suffer from any acute disease. The red 
cheeks of the inhabitants of Britain are very soon 
lost in Canada, and you very seldom see the stout, 
hearty people so common in England. The native 
Canadian of the Western Province is a very poor 
specimen of a man, unless he be the child of foreign 
parents. A few generations takes all the roundness 
from his figure, and brings him very much to the 
type of the Indian, as in the case of the New Eng- 
enders, who, though originally English, are now 
little better in appearance than White Indians. In- 
deed, the Indians themselves show the effects of the 
climate as much as Europeans, for what can be more 
opposite than the squat, fat figure of a Tartar, and 
the thin, tall outline of his descendant, when changed 
into one of the red tribes of North America. I used 
to be amused watching the steamers which came to 
the wharves on the river to get wood, crowded with 
emigrants from the New England States to the 
Far West. The men, if at all beyond youth, 
were neshless, long-necked, cahiess, cadaverous- 
looking creatures ; the women, in their coal-scuttle 
sun-bonnets, with a long green veil hanging down 



American Men and Women. 301 

their backs, and straight dresses tied loosely round 
the waist, looked, for the most part, very strange 
apparitions to one accustomed to the women of 
England. The girls of America are often very 
pretty, but they soon lose their plumpness, and grow 
old. Mr. Brown, up the river one day, amused me 
by telling how he had heard a servant-woman who 
was in fierce dispute with a comrade, declare that 
she was no better than three broomsticks tied to- 
gether. She was pretty nearly right as to the 
appearance of not a few — the three broomsticks, 
dressed up, would look almost as stout. It is the 
same with animals as with human beings. A horse 
or a bull, brought from Britain, loses its spirit in 
Canada. Little or no trouble is needed to break 
in a colt, for if he be put in a waggon he will 
very soon pull as steadily as any other. A 
Canadian bull is a very quiet and inoffensive 
creature. Everything, in fact, seems alike to de- 
generate in form and spirit from its native English 
characteristics. 

But I am forgetting my rides on the old mare, 
Kate, in the summer evenings. I was walking her 
slowly up the road one night, when I was struck by 
innumerable flashes of light among the trees in the 
forest at my side. I tried every theory I could think 
of to account for it, some of them ridiculous enough, 
but it was not till I came home that I hit on the 
right one, which I might have been sure of at first. 



303 Fireflies. 

The phenomenon in question was nothing but an 
immense number of fireflies sporting among the 
branches, and their motion made them seem as if 
every leaf were a Ley den jar giving off a succession 
of electric sparks. I had often seen them before, but 
never in such amazing swarms. They must have 
been holding some grand carnival, some firefly's ball, 
with endless dancing and wonderful illumination. 
The insects that make this brilliant display are a kind 
of beetle, about three-quarters of an inch in length. 
They give out their light from different parts of 
their bodies, but chiefly from the lower half, and 
are often caught and kept for a time in bottles as 
a curiosity. In other countries they are said to have 
been put to various uses, but I never heard of their 
being so employed in Canada. The Caribs of St. 
Domingo, a race of Indians whose memory is now 
passing away, were formerly accustomed to use them 
as living lamps in their evening household occupa- 
tions, just as we use candles. In travelling at night 
they fastened them to their feet, and in fishing or 
hunting in the dark they made them serve as lights 
to guide them. Moreover, as the fireflies destroy 
ants, they gave them the freest entry to their 
wigwams to help to rid them of these pests. 
Southey, in his poem of " Madoc," tells us that 
it was by the light of this insect Coatel rescued 
the British hero from the hands of the Mexican 
priests : 



Profusion of Insect Life. 303 

"She beckoned and descended, and drew out 
From underneath her vest a cage, or net 
It rather might be called, so fine the twigs 
That knit it — where, confined, two fireflies gave 
Their lustre. By that light did Madoc first 
Behold the features of his lovely guide." 

I am afraid he would have remained ignorant of 
her loveliness, if the discovery had depended on the 
light of Canadian fireflies, which are very beautiful, 
indeed, in their momentary brightness, but are far 
too dim for anything more. I have often been re- 
minded, as I have seen one, here and there, kindling 
his little spark for an instant, and sailing in light, for 
a brief glimpse, across the night, of the fine figure in 
which Coleridge compares the illumination afforded 
by philosophy, in the ages before Christ, to the ra- 
diance with which " the lanthorn-fly of the tropics" 
lights up, for a moment, the natural darkness. It 
is equally beautiful and apt. 

It is wonderful to see what a profusion of insect 
life sometimes shows itself in the summer-time in 
Canada. I was once sailing down the Niagara 
River to Chippewa, which is the last port above the 
Falls, in the month of September, when, all at once, 
the steamer entered a dense snowy cloud of white 
gnats, so blinding, from the countless numbers, that 
all on deck had either to get below, or turn their 
backs, or stand behind some protection. You could 
see the land through them only as you would have 
seen it through a snow-storm, and this continued 



304 Profusion of Insect Life, 

till we reached our destination — a distance of several 
miles. How many millions of millions of these frail 
creatures must there have been? There is an- 
other fly that I have also seen in vast numbers — 
the May-fly, which, however, makes its appearance 
not in May generally, but in June. But it is so dis- 
agreeable-looking, that my only desire on beholding 
it has been to get out of its way. Butterflies are 
sometimes met with in similar clouds. I have seen 
large numbers of them in the air, or resting on the 
earth ; but Sir James Emerson Tennent tells us that, 
in Ceylon, they sometimes fly past in flocks appa- 
rently miles in breadth, and in an unbroken stream, 
for hours and even days together.* What a vast 
amount of life there must be over the world, at 
any one time, when such an amazing fulness of it is 
met at even a single point ! Canada has, indeed, too 
much cause to feel this, as regards the insect tribes, 
for, of late years, it has been visited by such suc- 
cessions of pests as often to injure its harvests to a 
great extent. The "army- worm," as it is called, the 
weevil, the wireworm, the midge, and the locust, or 
as the Canadians call it, the grasshopper, have each 
invaded districts, which, on their appearance, were 
rich with the promise of abundant crops, but were 
left waste and ruined when they had passed over it. 
The grasshopper is the most easily noticed of these 
plagues, as its size and its curious noise in flying, 
and the way it strikes against your clothes, and in- 
* Sir J. E. Tennent's "Ceylon," i. 247. 



Grasshoppers. 305 

stantly fastens on them, are sure to draw attention. 
They seem to be a new arrival in Canada, having 
apparently travelled thither gradually from the vast 
prairies of the Far West. At the Eed Eiver they are 
met with in legions that enable one to realize what a 
curse the locusts must have been to the Egyptians 
of old. As soon as the dew is off the grass in the 
mornings they take short flights, as if to prepare for 
the day's work, and about nine o'clock, rise in cloud 
after cloud and fly off. About noon the numbers 
seem greatest. The light is then palpably obscured 
— there is an unearthly ashen light over everything — 
the air is filled as if with flakes of snow, sometimes 
to nearly a thousand feet in height, and changes from 
blue to silver-grey, or to ash or lead colour, as the 
clouds grow deeper or diminish, a quivering motion 
filling it, as the light strikes on the myriads of 
moving wings. A sound, indescribable, but over- 
powering, from the thought of its source, comes down 
from the vast hosts, filling the mind with a sense of awe 
and amazement. Such flights have hitherto been seen 
and heard only outside the settled parts of Canada, 
but, in every part of it there are multitudes. I have 
seen them in countless thousands in the fields and on 
the roads, and have often caught them to look at the 
wonderful beauty of their limbs, which are finished 
far more elaborately than the finest ornament, and 
are suited to the habits and wants of the creature in 
the most admirable manner. 
x 



306 Frederick and David leave Canada. 

The summer of the second year saw a diminution 
of our family circle by the departure of Frederick 
and David to the United States, to push their fortunes 
there. They did not like farming, and were attracted 
by the population and wealth of the States, as com- 
pared with Canada. It was a sad time with us who 
remained, when they left us. In those days a great 
many young men left the province, from the diffi- 
culty of finding suitable employment in it. Where 
nearly all were farmers, and money was very scarce, 
and the towns mere villages, there was, of course, 
very little to do, and it was not to be wondered at 
that young men did not relish the thought of spend- 
ing their lives as day-labourers on a piece of ground, 
with no better remuneration for hard work than the 
food they ate and the rough clothing they wore. 
Anything more was not, in those days, to be hoped 
for. Since then, indeed, there has been a great 
change. The first race of settlers have made their 
farms valuable by many years' hard work and careful 
culture, and fine brick houses have taken the place 
of the shanties and log-houses which served at first. 
Some years of high prices made them all think their 
fortunes sure at once, and every one got his gig and 
his piano, and the girls went to boarding-schools, 
and the young men idled and flaunted round in fine 
clothes. If fewer leave Canada for the States now, 
it is not because they are any fonder than ever 
of hard work. Even where their father's farms 



Hard Struggles. 307 

would pay for hiring men to work them, they like 
to be gentlemen, and flock in crowds to turn doctors 
or lawyers in as easy a way as possible. It is won- 
derful how many there are of both these professions, 
and how many more hurry on to enter them. But 
there were no such openings in the early days of 
our settlement, and my brothers must either have 
plodded on driving oxen and hoeing, ploughing, 
harrowing, and the like, or have left for the great 
country across the river. They did not find life 
very sunny, however, even in the States, and both 
had hard struggles at first to get on. Poor Frederick, 
indeed, never got very far up in the world, a fever 
cutting him off some years after, when he was on a 
journey in the South. He died without a creature 
he knew near him, and indeed we did not know that 
he was gone till nearly a year after. David gradually 
made his way, and has long been comfortably settled 
in a rising town in one of the Western States ; but 
his advancement rose from his having had the good 
fortune to buy some land where a town grew up 
shortly after, which enabled him to make a good deal 
of money. Our household, when they had left us, was 
very quiet compared with the past — only Robert, 
Henry, and I remaining, with my two sisters as the 
mistresses of the mansion. 

What a curious Robinson- Crusoe life we led in 
many ways in those first years. A barrel raised on 
a stand, the bottom full of holes, and covered with a 
x 2 



308 Soap-making. 

layer of straw, and a number of channels gouged out 
in the board on which it rested, formed the primitive 
machine for our soap-making. All the ashes from 
the fires were thrown into the barrel, and, when it 
was full, a quantity of water poured into it made the 
alkaline ley that was needed, a pail at the edge of 
the board below catching it as it drained off. In 
summer time it was enough merely to throw this ley 
into another barrel, put in the fat left from our 
daily table, and stir the mixture together now and 
then, and the sun made soap of it, without any 
further trouble on our part. In colder weather it 
had to be put on the fire until the desired transmu- 
tation had been effected. The ley looked so very 
like strong tea that I was often afraid of some 
accident, where any of it had been left in a cup 
or bowl. To drink it would have been certain 
and awful death, as we did not then know how 
to neutralize the effect if we had taken it. Noah 
Nash, a young lad in the neighbourhood, was all but 
fatally poisoned by it one day ; indeed, nothing saved 
him but his presence of mind, and the fact that he 
had an acid in the house. Chancing to come in 
very much heated, and seeing a cupful of nice 
strong-looking tea in the window, he swallowed 
nearly the whole of it before he had time to think 
that, instead of tea, it was the terrible alkali that 
had been drawn from the ashes. The serious con- 
sequences of his mistake flashed on him in an instant. 



Home-made Candles. 309 

Snatching a tumbler, lie rushed to the cellar, where, 
providentially, there happened to be a barrel of 
vinegar, and in a moment filled the glass, and drank 
down successive draughts of it, and was thus saved, 
the acid effectually neutralizing the alkali in the 
stomach ; but, quick as he had been, his mouth and 
throat were burned to such a degree by the potash, 
that the skin of the mouth peeled away, day after 
day, in strips, and he had to be fed on the simplest 
preparations long afterwards. Our candles were a 
branch of home manufacture in which we rather ex- 
celled after a time, though, to tell the truth, the 
quantity used was not very great. We had bought 
candle-moulds of tin, and put aside any fat suitable 
for candles, till we had enough to make what would fill 
them; and then, what threading the wicks into the 
moulds at one end, and tying them over little pieces 
of wood at the other — what proud encomiums over 
one that kept fair in the middle — what a laugh at 
another which had in some eccentric way run down 
one side of the tallow, leaving the whole round 
of the candle undisturbed by any intrusion of the 
cotton. But we would not have made the fortune 
of any tallow-chandler had we had to buy all we 
burned, for we only lighted one at tea, or for a 
minute or two on going to bed, or to enable some 
one to read, when a craving for literary food set in. 
Lumps of pine, full of resin, were our more cus- 
tomary style of illumination, its flaming brightness, 



310 Rude Accommodation. 

leaping and flaring though it was, sufficing for our 
ordinary requirements. We used to sit for hours 
round the fire, talking and dozing ; to read was a 
huge effort, after hard work all day, and it was too 
cold, while the fire was kept up, to sit at any dis- 
tance from it. In some houses I have known candles 
kept as sacredly for doing honour to a stranger as if 
they had been made of silver. A rag in some grease, 
in a saucer, usually served for a lamp, and an inch 
or two of candle was only brought out when a guest 
was about to retire. Many a time I have known 
even visitors, in the rough bush, sent to bed in the 
dark. We were, however, in some things, wonder- 
fully before the people settled back from the river. 
Most of them were content to put up with the very 
rudest accommodation and conveniences ; one room, 
containing several beds, often holding not only a whole 
household, but any passing stranger. How to get 
out and in, unseen, was the great difficulty. I have 
often been in trouble about it myself, but it must 
surely have been worse for the young women of the 
family. As to any basin or ewer in the room, they 
were Capuan luxuries in the wild bush. " I'll thank 
you for a basin, Mrs. Smith," said I, one morning, 
anxious to make myself comfortable for the day, 
after having enjoyed her husband's hospitality over- 
night. It was gloriously bright outside, though the 
sun had not yet shown himself over the trees. 
" Come this way, Mr. Stanley ; I'll give it you 



Writing Letters. 311 

here," said Mrs. Smith. Out she went, and lifted a 
small round tin pie-dish, that would hold hardly a 
quart, poured some water into it from the pail at the 
door, which held the breakfast water as well, and set 
it on the top of a stump, close at hand, with the in- 
junction to " make haste, for there was a hole in the 
bottom, and if I didn't be quick the water would all 
be gone." Luckily, I was all ready ; but there was 
no offer of soap, and so I had to make my hands fly 
hither and thither at a great rate, and finish as best 
I could by a hard rubbing with a canvas towel. 

To write a letter in those days was by no means 
a light task. Ink was a rare commodity, and 
stood a great deal of water before it was done. 
When we had none, a piece of Indian-ink served 
pretty well ; and when that was lost, we used to mix 
gunpowder and vinegar together, and make a kind 
of faintly-visible pigment out of the two. The only 
paper we could get was dreadful. How cruelly the 
pen used to dab through it ! How invincibly shabby 
a letter looked on it ! The post-office was in a store 
kept by a French Canadian, and was limited enough 
in its arrangements. I remember taking a letter one 
day a little later than was right, as it appeared. 
u The mail's made up, Mr. Stanley," said the post- 
master, " and it's against the law to open it when it's 
once sealed ; but I suppose I may as well objige a 
friend." So saying, he took down a piece of brown 
paper from the shelf behind him, cut round some 



312 New Occupations. 

seals which were on the back of it, and exposed the 
" mail ;" which, forsooth, I found consisted of a 
single letter ! Mine was presently laid peacefully at 
the side of this earlier sharer of postal honour, and 
I hope did not make the bundle too heavy for the 
mail-boy's saddle-bags. 

It used to amuse us to see how readily every one 
round us took to new occupations, if anything 
hindered his continuing the one in which he had pre- 
viously been engaged. You would hear of a tailor 
turning freshwater sailor, and buying a flat-bottomed 
scow, to take goods from one part of the river to 
another; one shoemaker turned miller, and another 
took to making and selling " lumber." A young lad, 
the son of a minister, who wished to get a good 
education, first hired himself out to chop cord- wood, 
and when he had made enough to buy books, and 
keep a reserve on hand, he engaged with a minister 
over the river, who had an " academy," to give him 
tuition, in return for having his horse cleaned, and 
the house-wood split. Working thus, he gained 
Latin and Greek enough to go to college ; but had to 
return to his axe, and work for another winter, to get 
money to pay the expenses of the first session. This 
obtained, off he set, and ended by taking the degree 
of M. A. at Yale College, Connecticut. In the mean- 
time, however, a change had passed over his mind as 
to becoming a clergyman ; and instead of seeking a 
church, he went into partnership with his brother in 



The T anon for Driver. 313 

the patent medicine trade, in which calling, I sup- 
pose, he is now engaged in one of the United States' 
cities. 

I was once travelling on a winter night, in a public 
stage, on the edge of Lake Ontario. The vehicle 
was a high waggon, with a linen cover stretched 
over a round framework, like a gipsy tent. I was 
the only passenger, and had taken my place in the 
body of the machine. This did not suit the driver, 
however, who seemed to feel lonely; and, after a 
time, turning round to me, said — " I guess we'd be 
better together this cold night. Come this way — wont 
you?" Of course, I instantly complied; and then 
received, among much various information on matters 
interesting to coach-drivers, a narrative of his own 
life, a portion of which I still remember : — 

" I'm a reg'lar preacher, you see," said he. " I 
was on the circuit round Framley for one turn, and 
they promised pretty fair, but I didn't get enough to 
keep house on. Then I got changed to Dover 
circuit, and that was worse. Says I to my wife — 
1 Wife,' says I, i preachin' wont keep our pot bilin', 
anyhow — I must scare up somethin' else, somehow.' 
So I heard that there was a new stage to be put on 
at Brownsville; and I went to Squire Brown, and 
told him that, if he liked, I'd drive it ; and so, here 
I am — for, you see, the mail-stage has to go, even if 
a parson should have to drive it ;" and he ended with 
a broad grin and a long laugh — ha — ha — ha ! 



314 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Americanisms — Our poultry — The wasps — Their nests — 
" Bob's" skill in killing them — Racoons — A hunt — 
Racoon cake — The town of Busaco — Summer " sailing" — 
Boy drowned — French settlers. 

We were struck, as every new comer is, by the new 
meanings put by Canadians on words, the new con- 
nexions in which they used them, and the extraor- 
dinary way in which some were pronounced. Of 
course, we heard people " guessing" at every turn, 
and whatever any one intended doing, he spoke of as 
" fixing." You would hear a man say, that his 
waggon, or his chimney, or his gun, must be " fixed;" 
a girl would be ready to take a walk with you, as 
soon as she had "fixed herself i" and the baby was 
always " fixed" in the morning, when washed and 
dressed for the day. " Catherine," said a husband one 
day to his wife, in my hearing, pronouncing the last 
syllable of her name, so as to rhyme with line, " I 
calculate that them apples 'ill want regulatin'," re- 
ferring to some that were drying in the sun. They 
11 reckon" at every third sentence. A well-informed 
man is said to be " well posted up" in some par- 
ticular subject. Instead of " what," they very com- 
monly say " how," in asking questions. A pony 



Americanisms. 315 

was praised to me as being u as fat as mud." In 
place of our exclamations of surprise at the commu- 
nication of any new fact, the listener will exclaim, 
" I want to know." Any log, or trunk of a tree, or 
other single piece of timber, is invariably a " stick," 
even if it be long enough for a mast. All the stock 
of a timber-yard is alike plumber." An ewer is 
"a pitcher;" a tin-pail is "a kettle;" a servant is 
"a help;" an employer is "a boss ;" a church peiv 
is "a slip;" a platform at a meeting is "a stage ;" 
children are "juveniles;" and a baby is " a babe." 
In pronouncing the words engine, or ride, or point, 
or any other word with vowels prominent in it, if 
you would imitate a Canadian, you would need to 
open your mouth very wide, and make as much of 
each sound as you can. Of course, I speak only of 
the country folks, native born; the town people, and 
the educated classes, generally speak as correctly as 
the same classes in England. We cannot help 
noticing, moreover, that all these corruptions are 
trifling compared with those which we find in the 
popular dialects of different parts of our own 
country. You can travel all through Canada and 
understand everything you hear, except a word now 
and then ; but at home, to pass from one shire 
to another is often like passing to a different 
people, so far as regards the language. The 
great amount of travelling now-a-days compared 
with the fixed life of our forefathers, may serve to 



316 Our Poultry. 

account for this. People of every nation meet in 
Canada, and all come to speak very nearly alike, 
because tliey move about so much; but the various 
races that settled in England or Scotland ages ago 
kept together closely, and consequently each learned 
to speak in a way of its own. 

Our poultry increased very soon after our com- 
mencing on the river, until it became quite a flock ; 
but we had a good deal of trouble with them. The 
weasels were very destructive to the chickens, and 
so were the hen-hawks and chicken-hawks, which 
were always prowling round. But the hens managed 
to beat off the last of these enemies, and a terrible 
noise they made in doing so. The whole barn-yard 
population used to give Eobert great annoyance, by 
flying over the fence he had put up round a piece 
of ground set apart as a garden ; but he succeeded in 
terrifying them at last, by rushing out with a long 
whip whenever they made their appearance. The 
very sight of him was enough, after a time, to send 
them off with outstretched wings and necks, and the 
most amazing screeches and cackling ; it was laugh- 
able to see their consternation and precipitate flight. 
Our turkeys were a nuisance as well as a comfort to 
us : they were much given to wandering, and so 
stupid withal, that if they once got into the woods 
we rarely saw them again. The only plan was to 
have their wings cut close, and to keep them shut 
up in the barn-yard. In compensation for this 



Large Quantities of Eggs. 317 

trouble, however, we took ample revenge both on 
them and the cocks and hens, alike in person and in 
the harvest of eggs, which formed a main element 
in most of our dishes. We needed all we could 
get. As to eggs, it seemed as if any quantity 
would have been consumed. There was to be a 
" bee*' one time, to raise a second barn ; and my 
sisters were in great concern because they could not 
find out where the hens were laying. At last, they 
saw one go down a hole in the barn floor, and 
instantly concluded they had discovered the secret 
hoard. A plank was forthwith lifted, and there, 
sure enough, were no less than twenty dozen of eggs 
lying in one part or other. It was hard work to get 
them out, but Henry and I helped, and we brought 
them all to the house. In a week or ten days there 
were not two dozen left. The men who had attended 
the " bee," and one or two whom we kept on at 
wages, had devoured them all in cakes and puddings, 
or in the ordinary way. But what would these bush- 
fellows not get down ? One day, we had a labourer 
with us, and Eliza, to please him, set out a large 
glass dish of preserves, holding, certainly, a pound 
weight at the least. She thought, of course, he would 
take a little to his bread; but his notions on the 
subject were very different, for, drawing the dish 
to him, and taking up a tablespoon, he supped 
down the whole in a succession of huge mouthfuls. 
I have known a hired man eat a dozen of eggs at his 
breakfast ! 



318 Wasps. 

The wasps were very numerous round the house 
in summer. A nest of these creatures ensconced 
themselves in a hole between two logs, in the front 
part of it, and, as they never troubled us, we did 
not trouble them. But not so our little terrier, Bob. 
The mouth of the nest was about a yard from the 
ground, and admitted only one at a time. Below 
this, Bob would take his seat for hours together, 
watching each arrival ; sometimes letting them go in 
peaceably, but every now and then jumping up at 
them, with his lips drawn back, and giving a snap 
which seldom failed to kill them. The little fellow 
seemed to have quite a passion for wasp-hunting. 
The dead proofs of his success would often lie thick 
over the ground by evening. How the colony ever 
bore up against his attacks I cannot imagine. One day 
we saw John Eobinson, a labourer, whom we had 
engaged, rushing down in hot haste from the top of 
the field, flinging his arms about in every direction, 
and making the most extraordinary bobbing and 
fighting, apparently at nothing. But, as he got near, 
he roared out, " I've tumbled a wasp's-nest, and 
they're after me," and this was all we could get out 
of him for some time. Indeed they followed him 
quite a distance. He had been lifting a log that was 
imbedded in the ground, when, behold ! out rushed 
a whole townful, sending him off at once in igno- 
minious flight. I used to think the nests of the 
wasps, which we sometimes found hanging from 



Racoons. 319 

branches in the woods, most wonderful specimens of 
insect manufacture. They were oval in form, with 
the mouth at the bottom, and looked often not un- 
like a clumsily made boy's top. But of what 
material do you think they were constructed ? Of 
paper — real true paper, of a greyish colour, made by 
the wasps gnawing off very small pieces of decayed 
wood, which they bruise and work up till it changes 
its character, and becomes as much paper as any 
we can make ourselves. It is wonderful that men 
should not have found out, from such a lesson, the 
art of making this most precious production much 
sooner than they did. 

The racoons, usually called 'coons, were a great 
nuisance when the corn was getting ripe. They 
came out of the woods at night, and did a great deal 
of mischief in a very short time. We used to hunt 
them by torchlight, the torches being strips of 
hickory bark, or lumps of fat pine. We could have 
done nothing, however, without the help of our 
dogs, who tracked them to the trees in which they 
had taken refuge, and then we shot them by the 
help of the lights, amidst prodigious excitement 
and commotion. It was very dangerous to catch 
hold of one of them if it fell wounded. They 
could twist their heads so far round, and their skin 
was so loose, that you were never sure you would 
not get a bite in whatever way you held them. The 
Weirs, close to us, got skins enough one autumn to 



320 A Racoon Hunt. 

make fine robes for their sleigh. I never knew but 
one man who had eaten racoon, and he was no wiser 
than he needed to be. He was a farm-labourer, who 
stammered in his speech, and lived all alone, and was 
deplorably ignorant. Meeting him one day after a 
hunt, in which he had got a large racoon for his 
share, he stopped me to speak of it thus — * Ggre-e-at 
rac-c-coon thai — there was a p-pint of oil in him — 
it m-made a-a m-most beautiful shortcake !" 1 
wished him joy of his taste. 

I remember one racoon hunt which formed a sub- 
ject of conversation for long after. Mr. Weir's field 
of Indian corn had been sadly injured, and our own 
was not much better, so we resolved on destroying 
some of the marauders if possible. All the young 
fellows for miles up and down the river, gathered in 
the afternoon, to get a long talk beforehand, and to 
make every preparation. Some of us saw to the 
torches — that there were plenty of them, and that 
they were of the right kind of wood ; others looked 
to the guns, to have them properly cleaned, and the 
ammunition ready. " I say, Ned Thompson," said 
one, " I hope you wont be making such a noise as 
you did last time, frightening the very dogs." But 
the speaker was only told in return, to keep out of 
the way of everybody else, and not run the risk of 
being taken for a 'coon himself as he went creeping 
along. In due time all work was over for the night 
on our farm, the dogs collected, a hearty supper en- 



A Racoon Hunt. 321 

joyed, amidst the boasts of some and the jokes of 
others, and off we set. The moon was very young, 
but it hung in the clear heavens like a silver bow. 
A short walk brought us to the forest, and here we 
spread ourselves, so as to take a larger sweep, in- 
tending that the two wings should gradually draw 
round and make part of a circle. We could see the 
crescent of the moon, every now and then, through 
the fretted roof of branches, but it would have been 
very dark on the surface of the ground had not the 
torches lent us their brightness. As it was, many 
a stumble checked our steps. It was rough work — 
over logs, into wet spots, round trees, through brush, 
with countless stubs and pieces of wood to keep you 
in mind that you must lift your feet well, like the 
Indians, if you did not wish to be tripped up. The 
light gleaming through the great trees on the wild 
picture of men and dogs, now glaring in the red 
name of the torches, now hidden by the smoke, 
was very exciting. The dogs had not, as yet, 
scented anything, but they gradually got ahead of us. 
Presently we heard the first baying and barking. 
We forthwith made for the spot, creeping up as 
silently as possible, while the dogs kept the distracted 
racoon from making its escape. How to get a glimpse 
of it was the trouble. " There's nothing there that 
I can see," whispered Brown to me ; but the dogs 
showed that they thought differently, by the way 
they tore and scratched at the bottom of the tree. 

Y 



322 The Toicn of Busaco. 

What with the leaves, the feebleness of the moon- 
light, and our distance from the object, every eye was 
strained, for a time, without seeing a sign of any- 
thing living. At last, Henry motioned that he saw 
it, and sure enough there it was, its shape visible far 
up on a branch. Another moment and the sharp 
crack of his rifle heralded its death and descent 
to the ground. We had good success after this first 
lucky shot, which had been only one of many fired 
at what seemed to be the racoon, but had been only 
a knot in the tree, or, perhaps, a shadow. We did 
not come home till late, when, with dogs almost as 
tired as ourselves, the whole party re-assembled, 
each bearing off his spoils with him if he had won 
any. 

I was walking up the road one afternoon with my 
brother, when we came to an opening on the right 
hand, apparently only leading into pathless woods. 
Stopping me, however, Henry turned and asked, " If 
I saw yon post stuck up in the little open ?" It 
was some time before I could make it out. At last 
I noticed what he alluded to — simply a rough 
post, six feet high, stuck into the ground, in the 
middle of unbroken desolation. " That's the centre 
of the market-place in the town of Busaco, that is to 
be," said he. "All this ground is surveyed for a 
city, and is laid out in building lots, — not in farms." 
I could not help laughing. There was not a sign of 
human habitation in sight, and the post must have 




A. Racoon Hunt in the Bush. 



P. 331. 



The Town of Basaco. 323 

been there for years. When it will be a town it is 
very hard to conjecture. It stands on the outside of 
a swampy belt, which must have deterred anyone 
from settling in it, and towns don't go before agricul- 
tural improvement, but follow it, in such a country 
as Canada, or, indeed, anywhere, except in a merely 
manufacturing district, or at some point on a busy 
line of travel. Some time after, a poor man effected 
one great step towards its settlement, by a very unin- 
tentional improvement. He had a little money, and 
thought that if he dug a deep, broad ditch, from the 
swamp to the river, he could get enough water to 
drive a mill, which he intended to build close to 
the bank. But it turned out, after the ditch was 
dug, and his money gone, that the water, which he 
thought came into the swamp from springs, was 
nothing but rain, that had lodged in the low places, 
and had been kept there by the roots of trees and 
the want of drainage. For a time, the stream was 
beautiful, but, after a little, the swamp got better, 
and the stream diminished, until, in a few weeks, 
the channel was dry, and the swamp became good 
land. I hope the poor fellow had bought it before 
commencing his ditch. If so, he would make money 
after all, as his improvement raised its value im- 
mensely. 

A number of the young men of the humbler class 
along the river used to go away each summer 
" sailing" — that is, they hired as sailors on the 
y2 



324 Summer "Sailing" 

American vessels, which traded in whole fleets be- 
tween the eastern and western towns on the great 
lakes. It was a very good thing for them that they 
could earn money so easily, but the employment was 
not always free from danger. One lad, whom I 
knew very well — William Forth, the son of a decent 
Scotch tailor — was lost in it in the autumn of our 
second year. He had sailed for Lake Superior, and 
did not return at the time expected. Then his 
friends began to be anxious, especially when they 
heard the news of a great storm in the north-west. 
He was never heard of again, and no doubt perished 
with all the crew, his vessel having foundered in the 
gale. Years after, it was reported that a schooner, 
sailing along the upper coast of Lake Huron, came 
upon the wreck of a small ship, down in the clear 
waters, and found means of hooking up enough to 
show that it was the one in which our poor neigh- 
bour's son had been engaged. Curiously and sadly 
enough, a second son of the same parents met a 
miserable death some years after. He was attending 
a threshing-mill, driven by horses, and had for his 
part to thrust in the straw to " feed it;" but he, 
unfortunately, thrust it in too far, and was himself 
drawn in, and crushed between the innumerable 
teeth by which the grain is pressed out. Before the 
machine could be stopped, poor James was cut almost 
to pieces. Thus even the peaceful St. Clair had its 
share in the trials that follow man under all skies. 



A Boy Drotoned. 825 

Occasionally, accidents and calamities of this kind 
would happen close to us, and I could not but be 
struck at the depth of feeling to which they gave rise 
amidst a thin population. The tenant on the only 
let farm in the neighbourhood, who lived a mile 
from us, lost a beautiful boy in a most distressing 
way. There was a wood wharf close to his house, 
from the end of which the lads used to bathe on fine 
summer evenings. A number of them were amusing 
themselves thus, one afternoon, when Mrs. Gilbert, 
the wife of the person of whom I speak, coming out 
from her work, chanced to look at them, and saw 
one who was diving and swimming, as she thought, 
very strangely. A little after, they brought her 
the news that her boy was drowned, and it turned 
out that it had been his struggles at which she 
had been looking with such unconcern. The poor 
woman took to her bed for weeks directly she found 
it out, and seemed broken-hearted ever after. 

The number of French in our neighbourhood, and 
the names of the towns and places on the map, all 
along the western lakes and rivers, often struck me. 
Beginning with Nova Scotia, we trace them the 
whole way — proofs of the sway France once had in 
North America. The bays and headlands, from the 
Atlantic to the Far West, bear French names. For 
instance, Cape Breton, and its capital, Louisburg, 
and Maine, and Vermont, in the States. All Lower 
Canada was French; then we have Detroit on Lake 



326 An Indian Device. 

St. Clair; Sault Ste. Marie at Lake Superior; besides 
a string of old French names all down the Missis- 
sippi, at the mouth of which was the whilom French 
province of Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico. This 
shows significantly the great vicissitudes that occur 
in the story of a nation. But our own history has 
taught us the same lesson. All the United States 
were once British provinces. 

I had come out early one morning, in spring, to 
look at the glorious river which lay for miles like a 
mirror before me, when my attention was attracted 
to a canoe with a great green bush at one end of it, 
floating, apparently empty, down the current. I 
soon noticed a hand, close at the side, slowly sculling 
it by a paddle, and keeping the bush down the 
stream. As it glided past, I watched it narrowly. A 
great flock of wild ducks were splashing and diving 
at some distance below ; but so slowly and silently 
did the canoe drift on, that they did not seem to 
heed it. All at ' once, a puff of smoke from the 
bush, and the sound of a gun, with the fall of a 
number of ducks, killed and wounded, on the water, 
plainly showed what it meant. An Indian in- 
stantly rose up in the canoe, and paddled with all 
haste to the spot to pick up the game. It was a 
capital plan to cheat the poor birds, and get near 
enough to kill a good number. There were immense 
flocks of waterfowl, after the ice broke up, each 
year ; but they were so shy that we were very little 




I ta 



h 



Cootes Paradise. 327 

the better for tliem. It was very different in earlier 
days, before population increased and incessant alarm 
and pursuit had made them wild, for the whole pro- 
vince must once have been a great sporting ground. 
There is a marsh on Lake Ontario, not far from 
Hamilton, called Coote's Paradise, from the delight 
which an officer of that name found in the myriads 
of ducks, &c, which thronged it thirty or forty 
years ago. 



328 



CHAPTER XX. 

Apple-bees — Orchards — Gorgeous display of apple-blossom — 
A meeting in the woods — The ague — Wild parsnips — Man 
lost in the woods. 

We had a great deal of fun when our orchard got 
up a little, and when we were able to trade with our 
neighbours for fruit, in what they used to call 
" apple-paring bees.' 7 The young folks of both sexes 
were invited for a given evening in the autumn, and 
came duly provided with apple-parers, which are 
ingenious contrivances, by which an apple, stuck on 
two prongs at one end, is pared by a few turns of a 
handle at the other. It is astonishing to see how 
quickly it is done. Nor is the paring all. The little 
machine makes a final thrust through the heart of the 
apple, and takes out the core, so as to leave nothing 
to do but to cut what remains in pieces. The object 
of all this paring is to get apples enough dried for 
tarts during winter, the pieces when cut being 
threaded in long strings, and hung up till they 
shrivel and get a leather-like look. When wanted 
for use, a little boiling makes them swell to their 
original size again, and brings back their soft- 
ness. You may imagine how plentiful the fruit must 
be to make such a liberal use of it possible, as that 



Orchards. 329 

which you see all through Canada. You can hardly 
go into any house in the bush, however poor, with- 
out having a large bowl of " apple sass" set be- 
fore you — that is, of apples boiled in maple sugar. 
The young folks make a grand night of it when the 
" bee" comes off. The laughing and frolic is un- 
bounded ; some are busy with their sweethearts ; 
some, of a grosser mind, are no less busy with the 
apples, devouring a large proportion of what they 
pare ; and the whole proceedings, in many cases, 
wind up with a dance on the barn-floor. 

While speaking of orchards and fruit, I am re- 
minded of the district along the Eiver Thames, near 
Lake St. Clair. To ride through it in June, when 
the apple-blossom was out, was a sight as beautiful 
as it was new to my old country eyes. A great 
rolling sea of white and red flowers rose and fell 
with the undulations of the landscape, the green lost 
in the universal blossoming. So exhaustless, indeed, 
did it seem, even to the farmers themselves, that you 
could not enter one of their houses without seeing 
quantities of it stuck into jugs and bowls of all sorts, 
as huge bouquets, like ordinary flowers, or as if, 
instead of the blossom of splendid apples, it had been 
only hawthorn. Canadian apples are indeed excel- 
lent — that is, the good kinds. You see thousands of 
bushels small and miserable enough, but they are 
used only for pigs, or for throwing by the cartload 
into cider-presses. The eating and cooking apples 



330 A Meeting in the Woods. 

would make any one's mouth water to look at them 
— so large, so round, so finely tinted. As to flavour, 
there can surely be nothing better. Families in 
towns buy them by the barrel: in the country, even 
a ploughman thinks no more of eating them than if 
they were only transformed potatoes. Sweet cider, 
in its season, is a very common drink in many parts. 
You meet it at the railway- stations, and on little 
stands at the side of the street, and are offered it in 
private houses. Canada is indeed a great country 
for many kinds of fruit. I have already spoken of 
the peaches and grapes: the plums, damsons, melons, 
pears, and cherries, are equally good, and equally 
plentiful. Poor Hodge, who, in England, lived on a 
few shillings a week, and only heard of the fine things 
in orchards, feasts like a lord, when he emigrates, on 
all their choicest productions. 

They were wonderful people round us for their 
open-air meetings — very zealous and very noisy. 
I was on a visit at some distance in the summer- 
time, and came on a gathering in the woods. There 
were no ministers present, but some laymen con- 
ducted the services. All round, were waggons with 
the horses unyoked, and turned round to feed from 
the vehicles themselves, as mangers. Some of the 
intending hearers sat on the prostrate logs that lay 
here and there, others stood, and some remained in 
their conveyances. There was no preparation of 
benches, or convenience of any kind. It so happened 



The Ague. 331 

that I came only at the close. The proceedings 
were over, and there was nothing going on, for some 
time, but a little conversation among the leaders. 
In one waggon I noticed a whole litter of pigs, and 
found, on asking how they came to be there, that they 
belonged to a good woman who had no one with 
whom to leave them at home, and had brought them 
with her, that she might attend to their wants, and 
enjoy the meetings, at the same time. There were 
often open-air assemblies in the woods. Temperance 
societies, with bands of music, drew great crowds. 
Rough boards were provided for seats, and a rough 
platform did for the sjoeeches. All the country 
side, old and young, went to them, for most of the 
people in the country districts are rigid teetotallers. 
There are poor drunkards enough, after all, but it is 
a wonder there are no more, when whiskey is only 
a shilling or eighteenpence a gallon. 

The great plague of the river was the ague, which 
seized on a very large number. The poisonous va- 
pours that rise from the undrained soil, in which a 
great depth of vegetable matter lies rotting, must be 
the cause, for when a district gets settled, and opened 
to the sun, so that the surface is dried, it disappears. 
I never had it myself, I am happy to say, but all my 
brothers suffered from its attacks, and poor Eliza 
shivered with it for months together. It is really a 
dreadful disease. It begins with a burning fever, 
occasioning a thirst which cannot be satisfied by 



332 Wild Parsnips. 

drinking any quantity of water, and when this passes 
off, every bone shakes, the teeth rattle, the whole 
frame quivers, with the most agonizing cold. All the 
bedclothes in the house are found to be insufficient 
to keep the sufferer warm. After a day's misery 
like this, the attack ceases, and does not return till 
the second day. Its weakening effects are terrible. 
If severe, the patient can do nothing even in the in- 
terval of the attacks, and they sometimes continue 
for seven and eight months together. The only real 
remedy known is quinine, and it is taken in quan- 
tities that astonish a stranger. Of late years 
there has been far less of the disease in the older 
districts than formerly, and it is to be hoped that, 
some day, it will disappear altogether, but mean- 
while it is a dreadful evil. It used to be a common 
English disease, but it is now nearly unknown in 
most parts of our country. Oliver Cromwell died of 
it, and in Lincoln it was one of the most prevalent 
maladies. I remember meeting an old English- 
woman who firmly believed in the old recipe for its 
cure, of a spider steeped in a glass of wine and swal- 
lowed with it. That was the way, she said, it had 
been cured in her part, and nothing could be better ! 
A terrible misfortune befel a worthy man residing 
back from the river, one spring, through his son — a 
growing boy — eating some wild parsnips in ignorance 
of their being poisonous. The poor little fellow 
lingered for a time, and at last died in agony. This 



Children in the Woods. 333 

must be reckoned among the risks families run in 
the bush. I have known a number of cases of a 
similar kind. 

One clay we were startled by a man crying to us 
from the road that two children of a settler, a few 
miles back, were lost in the woods, and that all the 
neighbours were out, searching for them. We lost 
no time in hurrying to the place, and found that the 
news was only too true. The two little creatures — 
a sister and brother — had wandered into the woods 
to pull the early anemones, which come out with the 
wild leeks, by the sides of creeks and wet places, at 
the beginning of spring, and they had gradually run 
to one flower after another, till they were fairly lost. 
The excitement was terrible. Men and women alike 
left everything, to search for them. The forest was 
filled with the sound of their names, which voice 
after voice called out, in hopes of catching an an- 
swer. Night came, and all the searchers returned 
unsuccessful, but there were others who kindled 
lights, and spent the darkness in their kind efforts. 
But it was of no use. Two — three — four — five — 
six days passed, and the lost ones were still in the 
great silent woods. At last, on the seventh day, 
they came on them, but almost too late. The two 
were lying on the ground — the little girl dead, the 
boy far gone. Tender nursing, however, brought 
him round, and he was able to tell, after a while, that 
they had wandered hither and thither, as long as they 



334 Lost in the Woods. 

could, eating the wild leeks, bitter and burning as 
they are, until the two could go no further. He did 
not know that his sister was dead till they told him. 
It was touching to see his father and mother swayed 
by the opposite feelings of grief for the dead, and 
joy for the living. 

Another time, in the winter, on a piercingly cold 
night, we were roused from our seats round the fire, 
by the cries of some one at a distance. Going to the 
door, we found it was an unfortunate fellow who had 
got bewildered by the snow covering the waggon 
tracks in a path through the bush, and who was 
trying to make himself heard, before the neighbours 
went to bed. It was lucky for him we had not done 
so, for our hours were very early indeed. It was so 
cold that we could only stand a few minutes at the 
door by turns, but we answered his cries, and had 
the satisfaction of finding that he was getting nearer 
and nearer the open. At last, after about half an 
hour, he reached the high road, and was safe. But 
the fellow actually had not politeness to come up 
next day, or any time after, to say he was obliged by 
our saving his life. 

A poor woman, not far from us, had lost her hus- 
band in the forest, many years before, under circum- 
stances of peculiar trial. She was then newly 
married, and a stranger in the country, and he had 
gone out to chop wood at some distance from their 
house, but had been unable to find his way back. 



Lost in the Woods. 335 

His wife and the neighbours searched long and 
earnestly for him, but their utmost efforts failed to 
find him. Months passed on, and not a word was 
heard of him until, at last, after more than a year, 
some persons came upon a human skeleton, many miles 
from the place, lying in the woods, with an axe at 
its side, the clothes on which showed that it was the 
long-lost man. He had wandered farther and farther 
from his home, living on whatever he could get in 
the woods, till death, at last, ended his sorrows. 

I shall never forget the story of a man who had 
been lost for many days, but had, at last, luckily 
wandered near some human habitations, and had 
escaped. He was a timber-squarer — that is, he 
squared the great trees which were intended for ex- 
portation, the squaring making them lie closely to- 
gether, and thus effecting a saving in freight, and had 
been employed on the Georgian Bay, amongst the 
huge pine forests from which so many of those 
wonderful masts, so much prized, are brought. His 
cabin was at a good distance from his work, which 
lay now at one point, and now at another. Fortu- 
nately it was fine mild autumn weather, else he 
would have paid with his life for his misadventure. 
On the morning of the unfortunate day, he had 
set out at a very early hour, leaving his wife and 
family in the expectation that he would return at 
night, or within a few days at most. For a great 
wonder, a fog chanced to be lying on the ground, 



336 Lost in the Woods. 

hiding everything at a few yards' distance, but 
he took it for granted that he knew the road 
and never thought of any danger. On, therefore, 
he walked for some time, expecting, every moment, 
to come on some indication of his aj)proach to his 
place of work. At last, the fog rose, and, to his 
surprise, showed that he had walked till nearly noon, 
and was in a spot totally unknown to him. Every 
tree around seemed the counterpart of its neighbour, 
the flowers and ferns were on all sides the same ; 
nothing offered any distinguishing marks by which 
to help him to decide where he was. The path along 
which he had walked was a simple trail, the mere 
beaten footsteps of woodmen or Indians, passing 
occasionally, and to add to his perplexity, every here 
and there other trails crossed it, at different angles, 
with nothing to distinguish the one from the other. 

It was not for some hours more, however, that 
he began to feel alarmed. He took it for granted 
he had gone too far, or had turned a little to one 
side, and that he had only to go back, to come 
to the place he wished to reach. Back, accordingly, 
he forthwith turned, resting only to eat his dinner 
which he had brought with him from home. But, 
to his utter dismay, he saw the sun getting lower 
and lower, without any sign of his nearing his 
" limit." Grey shades began to stretch through the 
trees ; the silence around became more oppressive as 
they increased ; the long white moss on the trees, as 



Lost in the Woods. 337 

he passed a swamp, looked the very image of desola- 
tion ; and, at last, he felt convinced that he was lost. 
As evening closed, every living thing around him 
seemed happy but he. Like the castaway on the ocean, 
who sees the sea-birds skimming the hollows of the 
waves or toppling over their crests, joyful, as if they 
felt at home, he noticed the squirrels disappearing in 
their holes ; the crows flying lazily to their roosts ; all 
the creatures of the day betaking themselves to their 
rest. There was no moon that night, and if there 
had been, he was too tired to walk further by its 
light. He could do no more than remain where he 
was till the morning came again. Sitting down, with 
his back against a great tree, he thought of every- 
thing by turns. Turning round, he prayed on his 
bended knees, then sat down again in his awful lone- 
liness. Phosphoric lights gleamed from the decayed 
trees on the ground; myriads of insects filled the 
air, and the hooting of owls, and the sweep of night- 
hawks and bats, served to fill his mind with gloomy 
fears, but ever and anon, his mind reverted to hap- 
pier thoughts, and to a growing feeling of confidence 
that he should regain his way on the morrow. 

With the first light he was on his feet once more, 
after offering a prayer to his Maker, asking His 
help in this terrible trial. He had ceased to con- 
jecture where he was, and had lost even the aid of a 
vague track. Nevertheless, if he could only push on, 
he thought he must surely effect his escape before 



338 Lost in the Woods. 

long. The sun had a great sweep to make, and he 
was young and strong. Faster and faster he pressed 
forwards as thejiours passed, the agony of his mind 
driving him on the more hurriedly as his hopes grew 
fainter. Fatigue, anxiety, and hunger were mean- 
while growing more and more unbearable. His 
nerves seemed fairly unstrung, and as he threw him- 
self on the ground to spend a second night in the 
"wilderness, the shadow of death seemed to lower 
over him. Frantic at his awful position, he tore his 
hair, and beat his breast, and wept like a child. He 
might, he knew, be near home, but he might, on the 
other hand, be far distant from it. He had walked 
fifty miles he was sure, and where in this inter- 
minable wilderness had he reached ? His only food 
through the day had been some wild fruits and ber- 
ries, which were very scarce, and so acrid that they 
pained his gums as he ate them. He had passed no 
stream, but had found water in holes of fallen trees. 
What he suffered that night no one can realize who 
has not been in some similar extremity. He had no 
weapon but his axe, and hence, even if he came upon 
deer or other creatures, he could not kill them — 
there seemed no way to get out of the horrible laby- 
rinth in which he was now shut up. From the 
morning of the third day his mind, he assured me, 
became so bewildered that he could recollect very 
little of what then took place. How he lived he 
could hardly say — it must have been on frogs, and 



Lost in the Woods. 339 

snakes, and grass, and weeds, as well as berries, for 
there were too few of these last to keep him alive. 
Once he was fortunate enough to come on a tortoise, 
which he could not resist the temptation to kill, 
though he knew that if he followed it quietly it would 
guide him to some stream, and thus afford him the 
means of escape. Its raw flesh gave him two great 
meals. His clothes were in tatters, his face begrimed, 
his hair and beard matted, his eyes hot and blood- 
shot, and his strength was failing fast. On the tenth 
day he thought he could go no farther, but must lie 
down and die. But deliverance was now at hand. 
As he lay, half unconscious from weakness of body 
and nervous exhaustion, he fancied he heard the drip 
of oars. In an instant every faculty was revived. 
His ear seemed to gather unnatural quickness ; he 
could have heard the faintest sound at a great dis- 
tance. Mustering all his strength, he rose, and with 
the utmost haste made for the direction from which 
the cheering sound proceeded. Down some slopes — 
up opposite banks — and there at last the broad water 
lay before him. He could not rest with the mere 
vision of hope, so on he rushed through the thick 
brush, over the fretting of fallen timber and the 
brown carpet of leaves, till he reached the river- 
bank, which was sloping at the point where he 
emerged, a tongue of land jutting out into the water, 
clear of trees. To the end of this, with anxiety 
indescribable, he ran, and kneeled in the attitude 
z2 



340 Lost in the Woods. 

of prayer at once to God for his merciful deliver- 
ance, and to man, when the boat should come, whose 
approach he now heard more clearly from afar, — that 
he might be taken to some human dwelling. The 
boat did come — his feeble cry reached it, and in a 
moment, when they saw his thin arms waving for 
help as he kneeled before them, the bows were 
turned to the shore, and he was taken on board — 
the lost one found ! He fainted as soon as he was 
rescued, and such was his state of exhaustion, that 
at first it seemed almost impossible to revive him. 
But by the care of his wife, to whom he was restored 
as soon as possible, he gradually gathered strength, 
and when I saw him some years after was hearty and 
vigorous. The place where he was found was full 
thirty miles from his own house, and he must have 
wandered altogether at least a hundred and fifty 
miles — probably in a series of circles round nearly the 
same points. 



341 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

A tornado — Bats — Deserted lots — American inquisitive- 
ness — An election agent. 

I have already spoken of the belt of trees running 
back some miles from us, familiarly called " The 
Windfall," from their having been thrown down by 
a hurricane many years before. Some years after, 
when living for a time in another part of the pro- 
vince, I had a vivid illustration of what these terrible 
storms really are. It was a fine day, and I was 
jogging along quietly on my horse. It was in the 
height of summer, and everything around was in all 
the glory of the season. The tall mints, with their 
bright flowers, the lofty Aaron's rod, the beau- 
tiful Virginia creeper, the wild convolvulus, and 
wild roses, covered the roadsides, and ran, as far as 
the light permitted them,' into the openings of the 
forest. The country was a long roll of gentle undu- 
lations, with clear streamlets every here and there in 
the hollows. The woods themselves presented a per- 
petual picture of beauty as I rode along. High above, 
rose the great oaks, and elms, and beeches, and maples, 
with their tall trunks free of branches till they 
stretched far overhead; while round their feet, not 



312 A Tornado. 

too thickly, but in such abundance as made the scene 
perfect, waved young trees of all these kinds, inter- 
mixed with silver birches and sumachs. My horse 
had stopped of his own accord to drink at one of the 
brooks that brawled under the rude bridges across 
the road, when, happening to look up, I noticed a 
strange appearance in the sky, which I had not ob- 
served before. A thick haze was descending on the 
earth, like the darkness that precedes a storm. Yet 
there was no other sign of any approaching convul- 
sion of nature. There was a profound hush and gloom, 
but what it might forebode did not as yet appear. I 
was not, however, left long in ignorance. Scarcely 
had my horse taken its last draught and forded across 
the brook, than a low murmuring sound in the air, 
coming from a distance, and unlike anything I had 
ever heard before, arrested my attention. A yellow 
spot in the haze towards the south-west likewise 
attracted my notice. The next moment the tops of 
the taller trees began to swing in the wind, which 
presently increased in force, and the light branches 
and twigs began to break off. I was glad I happened 
to be at an open spot, out of reach of immediate 
danger, the edges of the brook being cleared for some 
distance on both sides. Two minutes more, and the 
storm burst on the forest in all its violence. Huge 
trees swayed to and fro under its rude shock like the 
masts of ships on a tempestuous sea; they rubbed 
and creaked like a ship's timbers when she rolls, and 



A Tornado. 3-13 

the sky grew darker and darker, as if obscured by 
a total eclipse of the sun. It was evident that the 
fury of the storm would not sweep through the open 
where I stood, but would spend itself on the woods 
before me. Meanwhile, as I looked, the huge oaks 
and maples bent before the tornado, the air was thick 
with their huge limbs, twisted off in a moment, and 
the trees themselves were falling in hundreds beneath 
the irresistible power of the storm. I noticed that 
they always fell with their heads in the direction of 
the hurricane, as if they had been wrenched rcund 
and flung behind it as it passed. Some went down 
bodily, others broke across, all yielded and sank in 
ruin and confusion. The air got blacker and blacker 
— a cloud of branches and limbs of trees filled the 
whole breadth of the tempest, some of them flung by 
it, every now and then, high up in the air, or dashed 
with amazing violence to the ground. A few minutes 
more, and it swept on to make similar havoc in other 
parts. But it was long before the air was clear of 
the wreck of the forest. The smaller branches 
seemed to float in it as if upheld by some current that 
was sucked on by the hurricane, though unfelt on 
the surface of the ground. In a surprisingly short 
time a belt of the woods, about an eighth of a mile in 
breadth, and running I cannot tell Iioav far back, was 
one vast chaos, through which no human efforts could 
find a way. The same night, as we afterwards 
learned, the tornado had struck points incredibly dis- 



344 A Tornado. 

tant, taking a vast sweep across Lake Ontario, ra- 
vaging a part of New York, and finally rushing away 
to the north in the neighbourhood of Quebec. 

The destruction it caused was not limited to its 
ravages in the forest; farmhouses, barns, orchards, 
and fences, were swept away like chaff. I passed 
one orchard in which every tree had been dragged 
up and blown away ; the fences for miles, in the path 
of the storm, were carried into the air like straws, 
never to be found again; the water in a mill-pond 
by the roadside was lifted fairly out of it, and the 
bottom left bare. At one place a barn and stables 
had been wrenched into fragments, the contents 
scattered to the winds, and the very horses lifted into 
the air, and carried some distance. Saw-mills were 
stripped of their whole stock of " lumber," every plank 
being swept up into the vortex, and strewn no one 
knew whither. There were incidents as curious as 
extraordinary in the events of the day. A sheep 
was found on one farm, uninjured, beneath a huge 
iron kettle, which had been carried off and capsized 
over the poor animal, as if in sport. Wherever the 
storm passed through the forest was, from that 
moment, a tangled desolation, left to itself, except 
by the beasts that might choose a safe covert in its 
recesses. Thenceforth, the briars and bushes would 
have it for their own, and grow undisturbed. No 
human footstep would ever turn towards it till all 
the standing forest around had been cut down. 



Bats. 345 

The bats were very plentiful in summer, and used 
often to fly into the house, to the great terror of my 
sister Margaret, who used to be as afraid of a bat as 
BufFon was of a squirrel. They were no larger than 
our English bats, and undistinguishable from them 
to an ordinary eye. Almost as often as we went 
out on the fine warm evenings, we were attracted 
by their flying hither and thither below the branches 
of the trees, or out in the open ground, beating the 
air with great rapidity with their wonderful mem- 
branous wings. A bird peculiar to America used 
to divide attention with them in the twilight — the 
famous " whip-poor-will," one of the family of the 
goatsuckers ; of which, in England, the night-jar is 
a well-known example. It is amazing how distinctly 
the curious sounds, from which it takes its name, are 
given ; they are repeated incessantly, and create no 
little amusement when they come from a number of 
birds at once. The flight of the whip-jooor-will is 
very rapid, and they double, and twist, and turn in 
a surprising way. Their food is the larger moths 
and insects, any of which, I should think, they could 
swallow, for it is true in their case at least, that their 
" mouth is from ear to ear." The gape is enormous, 
reaching even behind the eye ; and woe betide any 
unfortunate moths or chaffers that may cross their 
path. It sees perfectly by night, but is purblind 
by day, its huge eye showing, the moment you see 
it, that, like that of the owls, it is for service in par - 






346 Deserted Lots. 

tial darkness. The light completely confuses it, so 
that, until sunset, it is never seen, unless when one 
comes by accident upon its resting-place, where it sits 
sleeping on some log or low branch, from which 
it will only fly a very short distance if disturbed, 
alighting again as soon as possible, and dozing off 
forthwith. They used to come in June, and enliven 
the evenings till September, when they left us again 
for the south. Some people used to think it fine sport 
to shoot birds so swift of flight ; but, somehow, I could 
never bring myself to touch creatures that spoke my 
own language, however imperfectly. 

Immediately behind our lot was one which often 
struck me as very desolate-looking when I had to 
go to it to bring home the cows at night. A field 
had been cleared, and a house built, but both field 
and house were deserted : long swamp grass grew 
thick in the hollows ; nettles, and roses, and bushes 
of all kinds, climbed up, outside and in ; the roof was 
gone, and only the four walls were left. I never 
learned more than the name of the person who had 
expended so much labour on the place, and then 
abandoned it. But there were other spots just like 
it all over the bush ; spots where settlers had begun 
with high hopes; had worked hard for a time, until 
they lost heart, or had been stopped by some insur- 
mountable obstacle, and had deserted the home they 
had once been so proud of. One case I knew was 
caused by a touching incident of bush-life. A young, 



American Inguisitiveness. 347 

hearty man, had gone out in the morning to chop at 
his clearing, but had not returned at dinner, and 
was found by his wife, when she went to look for 
him, lying on his back, dead, with a tree he had 
felled resting on his breast. It had slipped back, 
perhaps, off the stump in felling, and had crushed 
him beneath it. What agony such an accident in 
such circumstances must have caused to the sufferer ! 
The poor fellow's wife could do nothing even towards 
extricating her husband's body, but had to leave it 
there till the neighbours came, and chopped the tree 
in two, so that it could be got away. No wonder she 
" sold out," and left the scene of so great a calamity. 
Every one has heard of the inquisitiveness of both 
Scotchmen and Americans. I allude more par- 
ticularly to those of the humbler ranks, I have 
often laughed at the examples we met with in our 
intercourse not only with these races, but with the 
less polished of others, also, in Canada. I was going 
down to Detroit on the little steamer which used to 
run between that town and Lake Huron — a steamer 
so small that it was currently reported among the 
boys, that one very stout lady in the township had 
made it lurch when she went on board — and had 
got on the upper deck to look round. The little 
American village on the opposite side was " called 
at," and left, in a very few minutes, and we were off 
again past the low shores of the river. A little pug- 
nosed man, in a white hat and white linen jacket, 



348 American Inquisitiveness. 

was the only one up beside me ; and it was not in 

his nature, evidently, that we should be long without 

talking. "Fine captain on this here boat?" said 

he. I agreed with him offhand ; that is, I took it 

for granted he was so. " Yes, he's the likeliest 

captain I've seen since I left Ohio. How plain you 

see whar the boat run — look ! Well, we're leaving 

County- Seat right straight, I guess. Whar you 

born?" "Where do you think?" I answered. 

" Either Ireland or Scotland, anyhow." " No. 

Yoit're Irish, at any rate, I suppose ?" — I struck 

in. " No, sirr — no, sirree — I'm Yankee born, and 

bred in Yankee town, and my parents afore me. 

Are you travelling altogether ? " I asked him 

what he meant, for I really didn't understand this 

question. " Why, travelling for a living — what do 

you sell?" On my telling him he was wrong for 

once, he seemed a little confounded; but presently 

recovered, and drew a bottle out of his breast-pocket, 

adding, as he did so — " Will you take some bitters?" 

I thanked him, and said, I was " temperance." " You 

don't drink none, then? Well, I do;" on which he 

suited the action to the word, putting the bottle 

back in its place again, after duly wiping his lips on 

his cuff, But his questions were not done yet. 

" Whar you live ?" I told him. " Married man ?" 

I said I had not the happiness of being so. " How 

long since you came from England ?" — I answered. 

" You remember when you came ?" I said I hoped I 



An Election Agent. 349 

did, else my faculties must be failing. " I guess you 
were pretty long on the waters ?" But I was getting 
tired of his impudence, and so gave him a laconic 
answer, and dived into the cabin out of his way. 

I was very much amused at a rencontre between 
the " captain," who seemed a really respectable man, 
and another of the passengers, who, it appeared, had 
come on board without having money to pay his fare. 
The offender was dressed in an unbleached linen 
blouse, with " dandy" trowsers, wide across the body, 
and tapering to the feet, with worn straps of the 
same material; old boots of a fashionable make, an 
open waistcoat, and an immensity of dirty-white 
shirt-breast ; a straw hat, with a long green and lilac 
ribbon round it. A cigar in his mouth, a mock 
ring on his finger, and a very bloodshot eye, com- 
pleted the picture. It seemed he was a subordinate 
electioneering agent, sent round to make stump 
speeches for his party, and, generally, to influence 
votes; and the trouble with the captain evidently 
rose from his wishing to have his fare charged to the 
committee who sent him out, rather than pay it him- 
self. The captain certainly gave him no quarter. 
" He's a low, drunken watchmaker," said he, turn- 
ing to me; " I saw him last night spouting away for 
General Cass on the steps of the church at Huron. 
The fellow wants to get off without paying — I 
suppose we'll have to let him." And he did. He 
got through to the journey's end. 



350 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A journey to Niagara— River St. Clair — Detroit — A slave's 
escape — An American steamer — Description of the Falls 
of Niagara — Fearful catastrophe. 

The country on the St. Clair, though beautiful from 
the presence of the river, was, in itself, flat and tame 
enough. All Canada West, indeed, is remarkably 
level. The ridge of limestone hills which runs across 
from the State of New York at Niagara, and stretches 
to the north, is the only elevation greater than the 
round swells, which, in some parts, make the land- 
scape look like a succession of broad black waves. , 
The borders of the St. Clair itself were higher than 
the land immediately behind them, so that a belt of 
swamp ran parallel with the stream, rich reaches of 
black soil rising behind it, through township after 
township. The list of natural sights in such a part 
was not great, though the charms of the few there 
were were unfading. There was the river itself, and 
there was the vast leafy ocean of tree tops, with the 
great aisles with innumerable pillars stretching away 
underneath like some vast cathedral of nature; but 
these were common to all the country. The One 
"Wonder of the land was at a distance. It was 
Niagara. How we longed to see it ! But it was 



Detroit. 351 

some years before any of ns could, and there was no 
opportunity of going together. I had to set out by 
myself. It was in the month of September, just 
before the leaves began to turn. The weather was 
glorious — not too warm, and as bright as in Italy. 
I started in the little steamer for Detroit, passing the 
Indian settlement at Walpole Island, the broad flats 
covered with coarse grass, towards the entrance of 
Lake St. Clair, and, at last, threading the lake itself, 
through the channel marked out across its shallow 
and muddy breadth, by long lines of poles, like tele- 
graphs on each side of a street. Detroit was the 
London of all the folks on the river. They bought 
everything they wanted there, it being easy of access, 
and its size offering a larger choice than could be 
obtained elsewhere. It is a great and growing place; 
though, in the lifetime of a person still living — 
General Cass — it was only the little French village 
which it had been for a hundred years before. 
Taking the steamer to Buffalo, which started in an 
hour or two after I got to Detroit, I was once more 
on my way as the afternoon was drawing to a close. 
We were to call at various British ports, so that I 
had a chance of seeing different parts of the province 
that I had not yet visited. The first step in our 
voyage was to cross to Sandwich, the village on the 
Canadian shore, opposite Detroit, from which it is 
less than a mile distant. I was glad to see a spot so 
sacred to liberty — for Sandwich is the great point 



352 A Slave's Escajie. 

which the fugitive slaves, from every part of the 
Union, eagerly attempt to reach. I felt proud of my 
country at the thought that it was no vain boast, but 
a glorious truth, that slaves could not breathe in 
England, nor on British soil; that the first touch of 
it by the foot of the bondsman broke his fetters and 
made him free for ever. I was so full of the thought, 
that when we were once more under weigh it na- 
turally became the subject of conversation with an 
intelligent fellow-traveller, who had come on board 
at Sandwich. " I was standing at my door," said 
he, " a week or two ago, when I saw a skiff with a 
man in it, rowing, in hot haste, to our side. How 
the oars flashed — how his back bent to them — how 
he pulled ! It was soon evident what was his 
object. As he came near, I saw he was a negro. 
Though no one was pursuing, he could not take it 
easy, and, at last, with a great bend, he swept up to 
the bank, pulled up the skiff, and ran up to the road, 
leaping, throwing up his hat in the air, shouting, 
singing, laughing — in short, fairly beside him- 
self with excitement. ' I'm free ! I'm free ! — no 
more slave !' was the burden of his loud rejoicing, 
and it was long before he calmed down enough for 
any one to ask him his story. He had come all the 
way up the Mississippi from Arkansas, travelling by 
night, lying in the woods by day, living on corn 
pulled from the fields or on poultry he could catch 
round farmhouses or negro quarters; sometimes eat- 



A Slave's Escape. 353 

ing them raw, lest the smoke of his fire should dis- 
cover him. At last he reached Illinois, a free State, 
after long weeks of travel; but here his worst 
troubles began. Not being able to give a very clear 
account of himself, they put him in jail as a ' fugi- 
tive.' But he gave a wrong name instead of his 
own, and a wrong State instead of that from which 
he had come. He told them, in fact, he had come 
from Maryland, which was at the very opposite side 
of the Union from Arkansas, and was kept in jail 
for a whole year, while they were advertising him, 
to try to get some owner to claim him, and they let 
him off only when none appeared in the whole twelve 
months. This ordeal passed, he gradually made his 
way to Detroit, and now, after running such a ter- 
rible gauntlet, he had risen from a mere chattel to 
be a man !" Seeing the interest I took in the inci- 
dent, he went on to tell me others equally exciting. 
One which I remember, was the rescue of a slave 
from some officers who had discovered him in one of 
the frontier towns of the States, and were taking 
him, bound like a sheep, to Buffalo, to carry him off 
to his master in the South. Indignant at such treat- 
ment of a fellow-man, a young Englishman, who 
has since been a member of the Canadian Parliament, 
and was then on the boat with him, determined, if 
possible, to cheat the men-stealers of their prey. 
Breaking his design to the coloured cook, and through 
him, getting the secret aid of all the other coloured 

A A 



354 An American Steamer. 

men on the boat, he waited till they reached Buffalo, 
some of the confederates having previously told the 
poor slave the scheme that was afoot. As the boat 
got alongside the wharf, seizing a moment when his 
guards had left him, the gallant young fellow effectu- 
ally severed the rope that bound the slave, and, 
telling him to follow him instantly, dashed over the 
gangway to the wharf, and leaped into a skiff which 
was lying at hand, with oars in it ready, the negro 
following at his heels in a moment; then, pushing 
off, he struck out into the lake, and reached Canada 
safely with his living triumph. The story made 
a thrill run through me. It was a brave deed 
daringly done. The risk was great, but the object 
was noble, and he must have had a fine spirit who 
braved the one to accomplish the other. 

The steamer itself was very different from those 
with which I had been familiar in England. Instead 
of cabins entirely below the deck, the body of the 
ship was reserved for a dining-room, surrounded by 
berths, and one portion of it covered in for cargo ; 
the ladies' cabin was raised on the back part of the 
main deck, with a walk all round it ; then came an 
open space with sofas, which was like a hall or lobby 
for receiving passengers or letting them out. Next 
to this, at the sides, was a long set of offices, facing the 
engine-room in the centre, and reaching beyond the 
paddle-boxes, both the side and central structures be- 
ing continued for some distance, to make places for the 



An American Steamer. 355 

cook's galley, for a bar for selling spirits and cigars, 
for a barber's shop, and for I know not what other 
conveniences. Covering in all these, an upper deck 
stretched the whole length of the ship, and on this rose 
the great cabin, a long room, provided with sofas, 
mirrors, carpets, a piano, and every detail of a huge 
drawing-room, — innumerable doors at each side open- 
ing into sleeping places for the gentlemen travellers. 
It was a fine sight, with its profusion of gilding and 
white paint on the walls and ceiling, its paintings on 
panels at regular intervals all round, its showy fur- 
niture and its company of both sexes. You could get 
on the top even of this cabin, if you liked, or, if you 
thought you were high enough, might go out on the 
open space at each end, where seats in abundance 
awaited occupants. The whole structure, seen from 
the wharf when it stopped at any place, was liker a 
floating house than a ship, and seemed very strange 
to me at first, with its two stories above the deck, 
and its innumerable doors and windows, and its 
dazzling white colour from stem to stern. Such 
vessels may do well enough for calm weather or for 
rivers, but they are far from safe in a storm at any 
distance from land. The wind catches them so 
fiercely on their great high works that they are like 
to capsize, when a low-built ship would be in no 
danger. Indeed, we had a proof of this on coming 
out of Buffalo to cross to Chippewa ; for as the wind 
had blown during the night while we were ashore, 
aa2 



356 An American Steamer. 

we found when we started again next morning that 
the shallow water of that part of the lake was pretty 
rough, and our way leading us almost into the trough 
of the waves, the boat swayed so much to each side 
alternately that the captain got all the passengers 
gathered in a body, and made them run from the low 
to the high side by turns, to keep it from swamping. 
The water was actually coming in on the main deck 
at every roll. It was very disagreeable to have such 
a tumbling about, but this ugly state of things did 
not last long. The smooth water of the Niagara was 
soon reached, and we were gliding down to within 
about three miles or so of the Falls, as quietly and 
carelessly as if no such awful gulf were so near. I 
could not help thinking how terrible it would have 
been had any accident injured our machinery in such 
a position. There certainly were no sails on the 
boat, and I greatly question if there was an anchor, 
the short distance of her trips making one generally 
unnecessary. At last we got safely into Chippewa 
Creek, and all chance of danger had passed away. 

Long before reaching this haven of refuge, a white 
mist, steadily rising, and disappearing high in the air, 
had marked with unmistakable certainty our near ap- 
proach to the grand spectacle I had come to see. Never 
for a moment still, it had risen and sunk, grown 
broader and lighter, melted into one great cloud, or 
broken into waves of white vapour, from the time I 
had first seen it, and had made me restless till I was 



The Falls of Niagara. 357 

safely on shore. The sensation was painful — a kind 
of instinct of danger, and an uneasiness till it was 
past. Having nothing to detain me, I determined to 
lose no time in getting to the Falls themselves ; and 
therefore, leaving my portmanteau to be sent on 
after me, I set out for them on foot. There is a 
beautiful broad road to the spot, and it was in ex- 
cellent order, as the fall rains had not yet com- 
menced, so that I jogged on merrily, and was soon at 
my journey's end at Drummondville, the village near 
the Falls, on the Canada side, where I resolved to 
stay for some days. One of the finest views of the 
great wonder burst upon my sight during this walk. 
On a sudden, at a turn of the road, an opening in the 
trees showed me the Falls from behind, in the very 
bend downwards to the gulf beneath. The awful 
gliding of the vast mass of waters into an abyss which, 
from that position, only showed its presence without 
revealing its depth, filled me with indescribable awe. 
Over the edge, whither, I as yet knew not, were de- 
scending, in unbroken volume, millions of tons of 
water. Above, rose the ever-changing clouds of 
vapour, like the smoke from a vast altar, and behind, 
looking up the river, were the struggling waves of 
the rapids, covering the whole breadth of the stream 
with bars of restless white. After seeing Niagara 
from every other point of view, I think this is one of 
the finest. The leap into the hidden depths has in 
it something awful beyond any power of description. 



358 The Falls of Niagara. 

You may be sure I did full justice to the oppor- 
tunities my visit afforded me, and kept afoot, day after 
day, with praiseworthy diligence. My first walk to 
the Falls, from the village, brought me, through a 
break in a sandy bank, to a spot from which no- 
thing could be seen at the bottom of a gorge but the 
white foam of the American Fall. The trees filled 
each side of the descent, arching overhead, and made 
the vista even more beautiful than the wild outline 
of the bank itself would have been ; the water, like 
sparkling snow, drifting in long tongues down the 
face of the hidden rocks, filling up the whole view 
beyond. It depended on the position of the sun 
whether the picture were one of dazzling white or 
more or less dulled; but at all times the falling 
water, broken into spray and partially blown back as 
it descended, by the force of the air, was one of sur- 
passing beauty. The American Fall, though nine 
hundred feet wide, has only a small part of the cur- 
rent passing over it, and it is this shallowness that 
makes it break into foam at the moment of its de- 
scent. Emerging on the road at the edge of the river, 
the great Horse-shoe was at once before me on my 
right hand. No wonder the Indians called it u M- 
wa-gay-rah" — the " Thunder of Waters." A mass of 
a hundred millions of tons of water, falling a depth of 
a hundred and fifty feet in the course of a single 
hour, while you stand by, may well give such a sound 
as overwhelms the listener's sense of hearing. It is 



The Falls of Niagara. 359 

no use attempting to picture the scene. It was some 
time before I could go near the edge, but at last, 
when my head was less dizzy, I went out on the 
projecting point called the Table Eock, which has, 
however, long since fallen into the abyss, and there, 
on a mere ledge, from which all beneath had been 
eaten away by the spray, I could let the spectacle 
gradually fill my mind. You cannot see Niagara at 
once ; it takes day after day to realize its vastness. 
I was astonished at the slow unbroken fall of the 
water. So vast is the quantity hanging in the air 
at any one moment, that it moves down in a great 
green sheet, with a slow, awful descent. The patches 
of white formed in spots here and there showed how 
majestically it goes down to the abyss. Think of 
such a launching of a great river, two thousand feet 
in breadth, over a sudden precipice — the smooth 
flow above — the green crest — the massy solidity of 
the descent — and then the impenetrable clouds of 
watery spray that hide the bottom. Yet at the edge 
it was so shallow that one might have waded some 
steps into it without apparent danger. Indeed, I 
noticed men one day damming it back some feet, in 
a vain attempt to get out the body of a poor man 
who had leaped over. They hoped it would be found 
jammed among the rocks at the bottom, within reach, 
if this side water were forced back. But if it ever 
had been, it was since washed away, and no efforts 
could recover it. Descending a spiral staircase close 



360 The Falls of Niagara. 

to the Table Eock, I had another view from below; 
and what words can convey the impression of the 
deep, trembling boom of the waters, as you caught 
it thus confined in the abyss ? It was terrible to look 
into the cauldron, smoking, heaving, foaming, rush- 
ing, as far as the eye could see through the mist. A 
slope of fragments from the side of the rock offered 
a slippery path up to the thick curtain of the Falls, 
and you could even go behind it if you chose. But 
I had not nerve enough to do so, though several par- 
ties ventured in, after having put on oilskin clothes; 
guides, who live in part by the occupation, leading 
them on their way. Overhead, Table Eock reached 
far out, awaiting its fall, which I felt sure could not 
be long delayed. In crossing it I noticed a broad 
crack, which each successive year would, of course, 
deepen. On every ledge, up to the top of the pre- 
cipice, grass and flowers, nourished by the incessant 
spray, relieved the bareness, and in the middle of the 
river, dividing the Horse-shoe Fall from the Ame- 
rican, the trees on Goat Island dimly showed them- 
selves through the ascending smoke. The vast sweep 
of waters bending round the Horse- shoe for more 
than the third of a mile, was hemmed in at the far- 
ther side by masses of rock, the lower end of Goat 
Island projecting roughly from the torrents at each 
side, so as to hide part of the more distant one from 
my sight. A hill of fragments from its face lay 
heaped up in the centre, and more thinly scattered at 



The Falls of Niagara. 361 

the farther side. But I could pay little attention to 
details, with the huge cauldron within a few yards of 
me, into which the great green walls of water were 
being every moment precipitated, and which, broken 
into sheets of foam, hissed, and lashed, and raged, and 
boiled, in wild uproar, as far as my eye could reach. 
The contrast between the solemn calmness of the 
great sheet of green ever gliding down in the centre, 
with the curtain of snowy wreaths at its edges, where 
the stream above, from its shallowness, broke into 
white crystalline rain in the moment of its first descent, 
and the tossing, smoking, storm, beneath, was over- 
powering, and — accompanied as it ever was with the 
stunning, deafening noise of three thousand six 
hundred millions of cubic feet of water falling in 
an hour, from so great a height — filled my mind 
with a sense of the awful majesty and power of God 
such as I scarcely remember to have felt elsewhere. 

Being anxious to cross to the American side, I 
walked down the side of the river, after having as- 
cended to the top of the bank, and at last, about a 
mile below, found a road running slowly down to the 
level of the water, the slope having brought me 
back to within a comparatively short distance of the 
Fall. It would have been impossible to have 
reached this point by keeping along below, the 
broken heaps of rock making the way impracticable. 
The river at the place I had now gained is, however, 
so wonderfully calm that a ferry boat plies between 



362 The Falls of Niagara. 

the British and American shores, and by this I 
crossed. Some ladies who were in it seemed, at 
first, in some measure alarmed by the heaving of the 
water, but as the surface was unbroken, and reflection 
showed that it must be safe, they soon resigned 
themselves to the charms of the view around. Forth- 
with, the boat was in the centre of a vast semicircle 
of descending floods, more than three thousand feet 
in their sweep, and on the edge of the foaming sheets 
of the unfathomable gulf, into which they were 
thundering down. The grand cliffs on each side, the 
brown rocks of Goat Island in the midst, the fringe 
of huge trees in the distance on every hand, the 
clouds of spray which rose in thick smoke from the 
tormented waters — the whole pierced and lighted up 
by the rays of a glorious sun, made a scene of sur- 
passing beauty. I could not, however, take my eyes 
for more than a r moment from the overwhelming 
grandeur of the main feature in the picture. Still, 
down, in their awful, dense, stupendous floods, came 
the waters, gathered from the inland seas of a con- 
tinent, pouring as if another deluge were about to 
overwhelm all things. But, high over them, in the 
ever-rising clouds of vapour, stretched a great rain- 
bow, as if to remind us of the solemn pledge given 
of old, and the very edges of the mist glittered, as 
each beat of the oar sent us on, with a succession of 
prismatic colours, the broken fragments of others 
which shone for a moment and then passed away. 



The Falls of Niagara. 363 

The ascent at the American side was accomplished 
by a contrivance which I think must be almost unique. 
A strong wooden railroad has been laid, at a most 
perilous slope, from the bottom to the top of the 
cliff, and a conveyance which is simply three huge 
wooden steps, on wheels, furnishes the means of 
ascent, a wheel at the top driven by water, twisting 
it up, by a cable passed round a windlass. I could 
not help shuddering at the consequence of any acci- 
dent that might occur, from so precarious an arrange- 
ment. Goat Island is one of the great attractions on 
this farther side, and is reached by a bridge which 
makes one half forget the wildness of the gulf across 
which it is stretched. There is a house on the island 
in which I found refreshments and Indian curiosities 
for sale, but as I was more interested in the Falls 
for the moment than in anything else, I pushed on 
by a path which turned to the right and led straight 
to them. A small island on the very edge of the 
precipice, and connected by a frail bridge with Goat 
Island, lay on my road. It was the scene of a very 
affecting accident in 1849. A gentleman from Buffalo 
had visited it along with his family and a young man 
of the name of Addington, and after looking over it, 
the party were about to leave the spot, when Ad- 
dington, in his thoughtless spirits, suddenly took up 
one of the little children, a girl, in his arms, and 
held her over the edge of the bank, telling her that 
he was going to throw her in. The poor child, ter- 



364 The Falls of Niagara. 

rifled, unfortunately made a twist, and rolled out of 
his hands into the stream. Poor Addington, in a 
moment, with a loud cry of horror, sprang in to save 
her, but both, almost before the others at their side 
knew that anything of so fearful a kind had hap- 
pened, were swept into the abyss beneath. Beyond 
Goat Island, a singularly daring structure has enabled 
visitors to cross to some scattered masses of rock on 
the very brink of the Great Fall. A tower has been 
erected on them, and a slight bridge, which is always 
wet with the spray, has been stretched across to it. 
From this point the whole extent of the Falls is be- 
fore you. It was an awful sight to look down on the 
rushing terrors at my feet. I felt confused, over- 
whelmed, and almost stunned. Once after, on an- 
other visit, I clambered out to it over the mounds of 
ice in winter, but I hardly know that the impression 
was deeper then. 

There are accidents every now and then at Nia- 
gara, but it is only wonderful that, amidst such 
dangers, there are no more. The truth is that here, 
as well as elsewhere, familiarity breeds contempt. 
Thus, in 1854, a man ventured, with his son, to cross 
the rapids above the Falls, in a skiff, to save some 
property which happened to be on a flat-bottomed 
"scow," which had broken from its moorings, and 
stuck fast at some distance above Goat Island. The 
two shot out into the broken water, and were car- 
ried with terrible swiftness down towards the " scow " 



The Falls of Niagara . 3 65 

into which the son sprang as they shot past, fastening 
the skiff to it as he did so. Having taken off the 
goods they wished to save, the skiff, with both on 
board, was once more pushed off, and flew like an 
arrow on the foaming water, towards the Three 
Sisters — the name of some rocks above Goat Island. 
The fate of the two men seemed to be sealed, for 
they were nearing the centre Fall, and, to go over it, 
would be instant death. But they managed, when 
on its very verge, to push into an eddy, and reach 
the second Sister. On this, they landed, and having 
dragged ashore the skiff, carried it to the foot of the 
island, a proof that the " property" they wished to 
rescue could not have weighed very much. There, 
they once more launched it, and making a bold 
sweep down the rapids, their oars going with their 
utmost strength, they succeeded in reaching the 
shore of Goat Island in safety, though it seems to me 
as if, after thus tempting their fate, they hardly de- 
served to do so. 

I was very much struck by the appearance of the 
rapids above the Falls, on a visit I made to an island 
some distance up the river, in the very middle of 
them. A fine broad bridge, built by the owner of 
the island, and of the neighbouring shore, enables 
you to reach it with ease. It lies about half-way 
between Chippewa and the Falls, on the British 
side. The whole surface of the great stream is 
broken into a long cascade, each leap of which is 



366 The Falls of Niagara. 

made with more swiftness than the one before. It is 
a wild tumultuous scene, and forms a fit prelude to 
the spectacle to which it leads. Accidents occasion- 
ally happen here also. Just before I visited it, a 
little child had strayed from a party with whom she 
was, and must have fallen into the stream, as she was 
never seen again after being missed. 

Some years ago, a number of people in the neigh- 
bourhood formed the strange wish to see a boat 
laden with a variety of animals, go down these rapids 
and over the Falls. It was a cruel and idle curiosity 
which could dictate such a thought, but they ma- 
naged to get money enough to purchase a bear and 
some other animals, which were duly launched, un~ 
piloted, from the shore near Chippewa. From what- 
ever instinctive sense of danger it would be impossible 
to say, the creatures appeared very soon to be alarmed. 
The bear jumped overboard on seeing the mist of the 
Falls, as the people on the spot say, and by great 
efforts, managed to swim across so far that he was 
carried down to Groat Island. The other animals 
likewise tried to escape, but in vain. The only 
living creatures that remained in the boat were some 
geese, which could not have escaped if they had 
wished, their wings having been cut short. They 
went over, and several were killed at once, though, 
curiously enough, some managed, by fluttering, to 
get beyond the crushing blow of the descending 
water, and reached the shore in safety. 



367 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The suspension-bridge at Niagara — The whirlpool — The 
battle of Lundy's Lane — Brock's monument— A soldier 
nearly drowned. 

Two miles below the Falls an attraction presents 
itself now, that was not in existence when I first 
visited them, though I have seen it often since : the 
Great Suspension Bridge over the chasm through 
which the river flows below. Made entirely of iron 
wire, twisted into ropes and cables of all sizes, the 
largest measuring ten inches through, and contain- 
ing about four thousand miles of wire, it stretches in 
a road twenty-four feet in breadth, in two stories, the 
under one for foot passengers and carriages, the other, 
twenty-eight feet above it, for a steady stream of 
railway trains, at the height of two hundred and fifty 
feet over the deep rushing waters, for eight hundred 
feet, from the Canadian to the American shore. Two 
huge towers, rising nearly ninety feet on the Ame- 
rican side, and nearly eighty on the British, bear up 
the vast fabric, which is firmly anchored in solid 
masonry built into the ground beyond. It is hard to 
believe what is nevertheless the fact, that the airy 
and elegant thing thus hanging over the gulf is by 



368 The Whirlpool. 

no means so light as it looks, but weighs fully eight 
hundred tons. When you step on it and feel it 
tremble beneath any passing waggon, the thought of 
trains going oyer it seems like sending them to certain 
destruction. Yet they do go, hour after hour, and 
have done so safely for years, the only precaution 
observed being to creep along at the slowest walk. 
It is open at the sides — that is, you can see up and 
down the river, and over into the awful abyss, but 
my head is not steady enough to stand looking into 
such a depth. How Blondin could pass over on his 
rope has always been incomprehensible to me ; the 
bridge itself was not broad enough for my nerves. 
Yet he performed his wonderful feat again and again, 
close by, and each time with accumulated difficulties, 
until, when the Prince of Wales visited Niagara, he 
actually carried over a man on his back from the 
Canadian to the American side, and came back on 
stilts a yard high, playing all kinds of antics by the 
way. 

Every one has heard of the whirlpool at the Falls, 
and most of the visitors go down the three miles to 
it. To be like others, I also strolled down, but I 
was greatly disappointed. I had formed in my mind 
a very highly- wrought picture of a terrible roaring 
vortex, flying round in foam, at the rate of a great 
many miles an hour ; but instead, I found a turn in 
the channel, which they told me was the whirlpool ; 
though, to my notion, it needed the name to be written 



The Whirlpool 369 

over it to enable one to know what it was, like the 
badly-painted sign, on which the artist informed 
the passer-by, in large letters, " This is a horse." 
I dare say it would have whirled quite enough 
for my taste had I been in it, but from the brow 
of the chasm it seems to take things very lei- 
surely indeed, as if it were treacle, rather than 
water. There are stories about the strength of the 
current, however, that shows it to be greater than is 
apparent from a little distance. A deserter, some 
years ago, tried to get over below the Falls to 
the American side on no better conveyance than a 
huge plank. But the stream was stronger than he 
had supposed ; and in spite of all his efforts, he was 
forced down to this circling horror, which speedily 
sent him and his plank round and round in gradually 
contracting whirls, until, after a time, they reached 
the centre. There was no pushing out, and the 
poor wretch was kept revolving, with each end of his 
support sunk in the vortex by turns, requiring him 
to crawl backwards and forwards unceasingly for 
more than a day, before means were found to bring 
him to land. Somebody said at the time that he 
would surely become an expert circumnavigator 
after such a training ; but his miraculous escape has 
most probably not induced many others to make the 
same venturesome voyage. 

The village of Drummondville, a little back from 
the Falls, on the British side, is memorable as the 

B B 



370 A Sad Mistake. 

scene of the Battle of Lundy's Lane, in the war of 
1812 — 1814. I was fortunate enough to meet with an 
intelligent man who, when a boy, had seen the battle 
from a distance ; and he went with me over the ground. 
In passing through a garden, on which a fine crop of 
Indian corn was waving, he stopped to tell me that 
on the evening after the battle, he saw a number of 
soldiers come to this spot, which was then an open 
field, and commence digging a great pit. Curious to 
know all they were doing, he went up and stood 
beside them, and found it was a grave for a number 
of poor fellows who had been shot by mistake in the 
darkness of the night before. An aide-de-camp had 
been sent off in hot haste down to Queenston from 
the battle, to order up reinforcements as quickly as 
possible, and had been obeyed so promptly that our 
forces on the field could not believe they had come 
when they heard them marching up the hill, but 
supposing they must be Americans, fired a volley of 
both cannon and musketry into their ranks. There 
they lie now, without any memorial, in a private 
garden, which is dug up every year, and replanted 
over their bones, as if there were no such wreck of 
brave hearts sleeping below. In the churchyard 
there were a number of tablets of wood, instead of 
stone, marking the graves of officers slain in the 
conflict. I picked up more than one which had rotted 
off at the ground, and were lying wherever the wind 
had carried them. Peach-trees, laden with fruit, 



The Seneca Indians. 371 

hung over and amidst the graves, and sheep were 
nibbling the grass. But what seemed the most vivid 
reminiscence of the strife was a wooden house, to 
which my guide led me, the sides and ends of which 
were perforated with a great number of holes 
made on the day by musket-balls ; a larger hole 
here and there, shewing where a cannon had also 
sent its missile through it. I was surprised to see it 
inhabited with so many apertures unstopped outside ; 
but perhaps it was plastered within. 

Every part of the Niagara frontier has, indeed, its 
own story of war and death. On the way to 
Queenston I passed a gloomy chasm, into which 
the waters of a small stream, called the Bloody Run, 
fall, on their course to the river. It got its name 
from an incident in the old French war, very 
characteristic of the times and the country. A 
detachment of British troops was marching up the 
banks of the Niagara with a convoy of waggons, and 
had reached this point, when a band of Seneca 
Indians, in the service of the French, leaped out from 
the woods immediately over the precipice, and utter- 
ing from all sides their terrible war-whoop, rushed 
down, pouring in a deadly volley as they closed, and 
hurled them and all they had, soldiers, waggons, 
horses, and drivers, over the cliff into the abyss 
below, where they were dashed to pieces on the rocks. 
It was the work almost of a moment ; they were 
gone before they could collect themselves together, or 
bb2 



372 BrocFs Monument. % 

realize their position. The little stream was red 
with their blood, and out of the whole number only 
two escaped — the one a soldier, who, as by miracle, 
got back, under cover of night, to Fort Niagara, at 
the edge of Lake Ontario ; the other a gentleman, 
who spurred his horse through the horde of savages 
on the first moment of the alarm, and got off in 
safety. My attention was drawn, as I got farther on, 
to the monument of General Brock, killed at the 
battle of Queenston, in 1812., which stands near the 
village of that name, on a fine height close to the 
edge of the river. It is a beautiful object when 
viewed from a distance, and no less so on a near 
approach, and is, I think, as yet, the only public 
monument in the western province. I had often 
heard it spoken of with admiration before I saw it, 
and could easily understand why it was so. I could 
not but feel that besides being a tribute to the 
memory of the illustrious dead, it served also to 
keep alive through successive generations an en- 
thusiastic feeling of patriotism and of a resolute 
devotion to duty. 

Taking the steamer at Queenston, which is a small, 
lifeless place, I now struck out on the waters of 
Ontario, to see Toronto once more, As we entered 
the lake, I was amused by the remark of an Irish 
lad, evidently fresh from his native island. Leaning 
close by me over the side of the vessel, he suddenly 
turned round from a deep musing, in which he had 



A Soldier nearly Drowned. 373 

been absorbed, and broke out — " Och, sir ! what a 
dale o' fine landthim lakes cover !" Such a thought 
in a country where a boundless wilderness stretches 
so closely in one unbroken line, seemed inexpressibly 
ludicrous, not to speak of the uselessness of all the 
land that was " uncovered," if there had been no 
lakes to facilitate passage from one point to another. 
As we left the wharf at the town of Niagara, which 
stands at the mouth of the river, on- the lake, a great 
stir was caused for a short time by a soldier of the 
Rifles having been tumbled into the water, and 
nearly drowned, through the stupidity of a poor 
Connaughtman who was in charge of the plank by 
which those who were leaving the steamer, before she 
started, were to reach the shore. He was in such a 
breathless hurry and wild excitement, that he would 
hardly leave it in its place while the visitors were 
crowding out ; once and again he had made a snatch 
at it, only to have some one put his foot on it, and 
run off. At last, the soldier came, but just as he 
made a step on it, the fellow, who had his face to the 
shore, and saw nothing except the crowd, gave it 
a pull, and down went the man into the water, 
cutting his chin badly in falling. He evidently 
could not swim, and sank almost at once, but he 
came up to find ropes thrown out for him to cling 
to. But somehow he could not catch them, and he 
would, in another moment, have gone down again. 
Luckily, however, some one had sense enough to 



374 A Colonel's Kindness, 

thrust down a broad ladder, which was standing 
near, and up this he managed to climb, we holding 
the top steady till he did so. Every attention was 
instantly paid him; and I dare say the mishap did 
him no harm beyond the ducking. In a few minutes 
he was ashore again ; and I was delighted to see the 
colonel, who happened to be present, give him his 
arm, and walk away with him, talking kindly to 
him as they went. 



375 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Canadian lakes — The exile's love of home — The coloured 
people in Canada — Rice — The Maid of the Mist — Home- 
spun cloth — A narrow road — A grumbler — New England 
emigrants — A potato- pit — The winter's wood. 

What vast sheets of water tlie lakes of Canada are ! 
Beginning, in the far north-west, with Superior, 
nearly as large as all Scotland, we have Michigan, 
Huron, Erie, and Ontario, in succession, each more like 
a sea than a lake. On crossing them, you have no land 
in sight any more than on the ocean ; and, like it, they 
have whole fleets on them, all through the season of 
navigation. They yield vast sums from their fisheries, 
and their waves wash shores as extensive as those of 
many kingdoms. It is striking how gigantic is the 
proportion of everything in nature in the New World. 
Vast lakes and rivers, the wonderful Niagara, end- 
less forests, and boundless prairies — all these form a 
great contrast to the aspects of nature in Europe. 
The chain of lakes, altogether, stretch over more 
than a thousand miles, with very short intervals 
between any of them, and none between some. 
Even Ontario, which is the smallest, is nine times 
as long, and from twice to four times as broad, as the 
sea between Dover and Calais. I could not help 



3 7 6 The Exile's Love of Rome. 

thinking of the fact that there were men still living 
who remembered when the Indians had possession 
of nearly all the shore of Lake Ontario, and when 
only two or three of their wigwams stood on the 
site of the town to which I was then sailing. I 
found Toronto much increased since my first visit to 
it — its streets macadamized in some places, pave- 
ments of plank laid down on the sides of several, the 
houses better, and the shops more attractive. When 
we first came, it was as muddy a place as could be 
imagined; but a few years work wonders in a new 
country like Canada. There was now no fear of a 
lady losing her India-rubber overshoes in crossing 
the street, as one of my sisters had done on our first 
coming, nor were waggons to be seen stuck hard 
and fast in the very heart of the town. I found my 
married sister comfortably established, and spent 
a very pleasant time with her and her husband. 
There is, however, not much to see in Toronto even 
now, and still less at that time. It lies very low near 
the lake, though the ground rises as it recedes from 
it. The neighbourhood is rather uninteresting, to 
my taste, from the tameness of the scenery. It is 
an English town, however, in its feelings and out- 
ward life, and that made it delightful. It is beau- 
tiful to see how true-hearted nearly everyone be- 
comes to his mother- country when he has left it. 
There has often seemed to me to be more real love 
of Britain out of it than in it, as if it needed to be 



Loyalty of the Canadians, 377 

contemplated from a distance, in order thoroughly 
to appreciate all its claims upon our love and respect. 
In Canada almost everyone is a busy local politician, 
deeply immersed in party squabbles and manoeuvres, 
and often separated by them from his neighbour. 
But let the magic name of " home" be mentioned, 
and the remembrance of the once-familiar land causes 
every other thought to be forgotten. In the time of 
the Eebellion in 1837, before we came out, it was 
found that although multitudes had talked wildly 
enough while things were all quiet, the moment it 
was proposed to rise against England, the British- 
born part of them, and many native Canadians as 
well, at once went over to the old flag, to defend 
it, if necessary, with their lives. And when it 
seemed as if England needed help in the time of the 
war with Eussia, Canada came forward in a moment, 
of her own accord, and raised a regiment to aid in 
fighting her battles, and serve her in any part of the 
world. Later still, when the Prince of Wales went 
over, they gave him such a reception as showed their 
loyalty most nobly. Through the whole province it 
seemed as if the population were smitten with an 
universal enthusiasm, and despaired of exhibiting it 
sufficiently. And but yesterday, when rumours of 
war rose once more, the whole people were kindled 
in a moment with a loyal zeal. 

I was very much struck, on this trip, with the 
number of coloured people who have found a refuge 



378 The Coloured People. 

in Canada. In all the hotels, most of the waiters, 
and a large proportion of the cooks, seemed to be 
coloured. They take to these employments na- 
turally, and never appear to feel themselves in 
greater glory than when fussing about the table at 
meals, or wielding the basting-ladle in the kitchen. 
They very seldom turn to trades, and even their 
children, as they grow up, are not much more in- 
clined to them. I used to think it was, perhaps, 
because, as slaves, they might not have learned trades, 
but this would not apply to those born in Canada, 
who might learn them if they liked. They become, 
instead, whitewashers, barbers, or waiters, and cooks, 
like their fathers before them. I was told, however, 
that they are a well-conducted set of people, rarely 
committing any crimes, and very temperate. They 
have places of worship of their own, and I was 
amused by a friend telling us, one night, how he had 
met their minister going home, carrying a piece of 
raw beef at his side by a string, and how, when he 
had one evening gone to their chapel, the official, a 
coloured man, had told him that " the folks had 
tu'ned out raither lean in the mo'nin, and, 'sides, 
the wood's sho't — so I guess we sha'n't open to- 
night." Poor, simple creatures, it is, indeed, a grand 
thing that there is a home open for them like Canada, 
where they can have the full enjoyment of liberty. 
Long may the red cross of St. George wave an invi- 
tation to their persecuted race to come and find a 
refuge under its shadow ! 



Hamilton. 379 

I went home again by way of Hamilton, to which 
I crossed in a steamer. The white houses, peeping 
through the woods, were a pretty sight at the places 
where we stopped, the larger ones standing on all 
sides, detached, in the midst of pleasant grass and 
trees; the others, in the villages, built with an easy 
variety of shape and size that could hardly be seen 
in an older country. The tin sj)ires of churches 
rose, every here and there, brightly through the 
trees, reminding one that the faith of his dear native 
land had not been forgotten, but was cherished as 
fondly in the lonely wilderness as it had been at 
home. Hamilton, the only town of Canada West 
with a hill near it, gave me a day's pleasure in a 
visit to a friend, and a ramble over " the mountain," 
as they call the ridge behind it. The sight of streets 
built of stone, instead of wood, or brick, was posi- 
tively delightful, bringing one in mind of the stability 
of an older country. " Have you ever seen any of 
this ?" said my friend, when we were back in his 
room, and he handed me a grain different from 
any I had ever noticed before. I said I had not. 
It was rice ; got from Eice Lake when he was 
down there lately. The lake lies a little north 
of Cobourg, which is seventy miles or so below 
Toronto. He was very much pleased with his trip. 
The road to it lies, after leaving Cobourg, through a 
fine farming country for some distance, and then you 
get on what the folks call * the plains' — great reaches 
of sandy soil, covered with low, scrubby oak bushes. 



380 Lake Rice. 

thick with filberts. As you get to the lake, the 
view is really beautiful, while the leaves are out. 
The road stretches on through avenues of green, and, 
at last, when you get nearer, there are charming 
peeps of the water through a fringe of beautiful 
trees, and over and through a world of creepers, 
and vines, and bushes of all sorts. The rice grows 
only in the shallow borders of the lake, rising in 
beds along the shore, from the deep mud, in which 
it takes root. It looks curious to see grain in the 
middle of water. The Indians have it left to them 
as a perquisite, and they come when it gets ripe, and 
gather it in their canoes, sailing along and bending 
down the ears over the edges of their frail vessels, 
and beating out the rice as they do so. They get a 
good deal of shooting as well as rice, for the ducks 
and wild fowl are as fond of the ears as themselves^ 
and flock in great numbers to get a share of them. 
There are great beds along the shores of the Georgian 
Bay, on Lake Huron, as well as on Rice Lake, but 
there also it is left to the Indians. 

Of course I was full of my recent visit to the 
Falls, and dosed my friend with all the details which 
occurred to me. He had noticed, like me, how the 
windows rattle unceasingly in the neighbourhood^ 
from the concussion of the air, and told me of a cu- 
rious consequence of the dampness, from the minute 
powdery spray that floats far in every direction ; — 
that they could not keep a piano from warping and 



The " Maid of the Mist" 381 

getting out of tune, even as far as a mile from the 
Falls, near the river's edge. The glorious sunrise I 
had seen from Drummondville came back again to 
my thoughts ; how, on rising early one morning, the 
great cloud at the Falls, and the long swathe of 
vapour that lay over the chasm for miles below, had 
been changed into gold by the light, and shone like 
the gates of heaven ; and I remembered how I had 
been struck with a great purple vine near the river's 
edge, which, after climbing a lofty elm that had been 
struck and withered by lightning, flung its arms, 
waving far, into the air. " Did you see the Maid of 
the Mist ?" he asked. Of course I had, and we talked 
of it ; how the little steamer plies, many times a day, 
from the landing-places, close up to the Falls, going 
sometimes so near that you stand on the bank, far 
above, in anxious excitement lest it should be sucked 
into the cauldron and perish at once. I have stood 
thus wondering if the paddles would ever get her out 
of the white foam into which she had pressed, and it 
seemed as if, though they were doing their utmost, it 
was a terrible time before they gained their point. 
If any accident were to happen to the machinery, woe 
to those on board ! As it is, they get drenched, in 
spite of oil-skin dresses, and must be heartily glad 
when they reach firm footing once more. 

I was sorry when I had to leave and turn my face 
once more towards home. As the stage drove on, the 
roads being still in their best condition, I had leisure 



382 Homespun Cloth. 

to notice everything. The quantity of homespun 
grey woollen cloth, worn by the farmers and country 
people, was very much greater than I had seen it in 
previous years, and was in admirable keeping with 
the country around. The wives and daughters in 
the farmhouses have a good deal to do in its manu- 
facture. The wool is taken to the mill to get cleaned, 
a certain weight being kept back from each lot in 
payment; then the snowy-white fleece is twisted 
into rolls, and in that condition it is taken back by 
its owners to be spun into yarn at home. I like the 
hum of the spinning-wheel amazingly, and have often 
waited to look at some tidy girl, walking backwards 
and forwards at her task, at each approach sending 
off another hum, as she drives the wheel round 
once more. But the cloth is not made at home. The 
mill gets the yarn when finished, and weaves it into 
the homely useful fabric I saw everywhere around. 
At one place we had an awkward stoppage on a 
piece of narrow corduroy road. There happened to 
be a turn in it, so that the one end could not be seen 
from the other, and we had got on some distance, 
bumping dreadfully from log to log, when a waggon 
made its appearance coming towards us. It could 
not pass and it could not turn, and there was water 
at both sides. What was to be done ? It was a 
great question for the two drivers. Their tongues 
went at a great rate at each other for a while, but, 
after a time> they cooled down enough to discuss the 



A Grumbling Scotchman. 883 

situation, as two statesmen would the threatened 
collision of empires. They finally solved the diffi- 
culty by unyoking the horses from the waggon, and 
pushing it back over the logs with infinite trouble, 
after taking out as much of the load as was necessary. 
Of course the passengers helped with right goodwill, 
turning the wheels, and straining this way and that, 
till the road was clear, when we drove on once more. 
The bridge at Brantford, when we reached it, was 
broken down, having remained so since the last 
spring floods, when it had been swept away by the ice 
and water together, and the coach had to get through 
the stream as well as it could. The horses behaved well, 
the vehicle itself slipped and bumped over and against 
the stones at the bottom ; but it got a cleaning that it 
very much needed, and neither it nor we took any 
harm. A great lumpish farmer, who travelled with 
me, helped to pass the time by his curious notions 
and wonderful power of grumbling. A person beside 
him, who appeared to know his ways, dragged him 
into conversation, whether he would or not. He 
maintained there was nothing in Canada like what 
he had seen in Scotland; his wheat had been de- 
stroyed by the midge, year after year, or by the rust; 
his potatoes, he averred, had never done well, and 
everything else had been alike miserable. At last he 
seemed to have got through his lamentations, and his 
neighbour struck in — " Well, at any rate, Mr. 
M'Craw, you can't say but your turnips are first rate 



384 An Irish Labourer. 

this year ; why one of them will fill a bucket when 
you cut it up for the cattle." But Mr. M'Craw was 
not to be beaten, and had a ready answer. " They're 
far owre guid — I'll never be fit to use them — the half 
o' them 'ill rot in the grund, if they dinna choke the 
puir kye wi the size o' them." The whole of us 
laughed, but Mr. M'Craw only shook his head. As 
we were trotting along we overtook an Irishman — a 
labouring man — and were hailed by him as we 
passed. " Will ye take us to Ingersoll for a quarter 
(an English shilling) ?" The driver pulled up — 
made some objections, but at last consented, and 
Paddy instantly pulled out his money, and reached it 
into the hand which was stretched down to receive 
it. " Jump in, now — quick." But, indeed, he 
needn't have said it, he was only too anxious to do 
so. The coach window was down, and the pane being 
large, a good-sized opening was left. In a moment 
Pat was on the step below ; the next, first one leg 
came through the window-frame, amidst our un- 
limited laughter ; then the body tried to follow, but 
this was no easy business. " Wait a minit. I'll be 
thro' hi a minit," he shouted to us. " Get out, man, 
do ye no ken the use o' a door ?" urged Mr. M'Craw. 
But in the meantime Pat had crushed himself 
through, in some way, and had landed in an extraor- 
dinary fashion, as gently as he could, across our 
knees. We soon got him into his seat, but it was 
long before we ceased laughing at the adventure. He 



A Gentleman and his Bog. 385 

could never have been in a coach in his life before. 
I saw a misfortune happen in an omnibus some years 
after, on the way down to Toronto from the North, 
which was the only thing to be compared to it for its 
effect on the risible powers of the spectators. A 
gentleman travelling with me then, had a favourite 
dog with him, which he was very much afraid he 
might lose, but which the driver would not allow him 
to take inside. At every stoppage the first thought 
of both man and beast seemed the same, to see if all 
was right with the other. The back of the omnibus 
was low, and the dog was eager to get in, but he and 
his master could only confer with each other from 
opposite sides of the door. At last, as we got near 
the town we came to a halt once more. The gen- 
tleman was all anxiety about his dog. For the 
fiftieth time he put his" head to the window to see if 
everything was right. But it happened that, just as 
he did so, the dog was in full flight for the same 
opening, having summoned up all his strength for 
a terrible jump through the only entrance, and 
reached it at the same moment as his master's face, 
against which he came with a force which sent him- 
self back to the ground and sorely disturbed his 
owner's composure. It was lucky the animal was not 
very large, else it might have done serious damage; 
as it was, an astounding shock was the only apparent 
result. It was a pity he was hurt at all, but the 
thought of blocking off the dog with his face, as you 
c c 



586 New England Emigrants. 

do a cricket ball with a bat, and the sublime astonish- 
ment of both dog and man at the collision, were 
irresistibly ludicrous. 

On our way from London to Lake Huron we came 
on a curious sight at the side of the road — a New 
England family, on their way from Vermont to Michi- 
gan, travelling, and living, in a waggon, like the Scy- 
thians of old. The waggon was of comparatively 
slight construction, and was arched over with a white 
canvas roof, so as to serve for a conveyance by day, 
and a bedroom by night, though it must have been 
hard work to get a man and his wife, and some 
children, all duly stretched out at full length, packed 
into it. Some of them, I suppose, took advantage 
of wayside inns for their nightly lodging. A thin 
pipe, projecting at the back, showed that they had a 
small stove with them, to cook their meals. Two 
cows were slowly walking behind, the man himself 
driving them ; and a tin pail, hanging on the front 
of the waggon, spoke of part of their milk being in 
the process of churning into butter by the shaking 
on the way. They were very respectable looking 
people — as nearly all New Englanders are — and had, 
no doubt, sold off their property, whatever it might 
have been, in their native State, to go in search of a 
new " location," as they call it — that is, a fresh 
settlement in the Far West, with the praises of which, 
at that time, the country was full. It must have 
taken them a very long time to get so far at such 



New England Emigrants. 387 

a snail's pace; but time would eventually take a 
snail round the world, if it had enough of it, and 
they seemed to lay no stress whatever on the rate 
of their progress. They had two horses, two cows, 
and the waggon, to take with them, until they 
should reach their new neighbourhood; and to ac- 
complish that was worth some delay. One of my 
fellow-travellers told me that such waggon-loads 
were then an every- day sight on the road past 
Brantford; and, indeed, I can easily believe it. 
Michigan was then a garden of Eden, according 
to popular report ; but it was not long in losing its 
fame, which passed to Wisconsin, and from that, has 
passed to other States or territories since. The 
New England folks are as much given to leaving their 
own country as any people, and much more than 
most. Their own States are too poor to keep them 
well at home; and they have energy, shrewdness, and 
very often high principle, which make them wel- 
come in any place where they may choose to settle in 
preference. I know parts in some of the New 
England States where there are hardly any young 
men or young women ; they have left for the towns 
and cities more or less remote, where they can best 
push their fortunes. It is the same very much in 
Nova Scotia, and, indeed, must be so with all poor 
countries. 

I was very glad, when I got home, to find all my 
circle quite well, and had a busy time of it for a 
cc2 



) 
8S8 A Potato Pit. 

good while, telling them all I had seen and heard. 
They were busy with their fall- work — getting the 
potatoes and turnips put into pits, to keep them from 
the frost when it should set in, and getting ready a 
great stock of firewood. Our pit was a curious 
affair, which I should have mentioned earlier, since 
we made it in the second fall we were on the river. 
We dug a great hole like a grave, many feet deep, 
large enough to hold a hundred bushels of potatoes, 
and I don't know what besides. The bottom of this 
excavation was then strewed with loose boards, and 
the sides were walled round with logs, set up side by 
side, to keep the earth from falling in. On the top, 
instead of a roof, we laid a floor of similar logs, close 
together, and on this we heaped up earth to the 
thickness of about three feet, to keep out the cold, 
however severe it might be. The entrance was at 
one end, down a short ladder, which brought you to 
a door, roughly fitted in. The first year it was made, 
we paid for imperfect acquaintance with such things 
by bringing a heavy loss on ourselves. We had put 
in eighty bushels of potatoes, and, to keep out the 
least trace of frost, filled up the hole where the ladder 
was with earth. But in the spring when we opened 
the pit to get out our seed, we found the whole heap 
to be worthless. I remember the day very well ; it 
was very bright and beautiful, and we were all in high 
spirits. The earth was removed from the ladder end 
in a very short time, and young Grahame, one of a 



The Winter's Wood. 389 

neighbour's boys, asked leave to go in first, and bring 
out the first basketful. Down he leaped, pulled open 
the door, and crept in. We waited a minute, but 
there was no sign of his coming out again. We 
called to him, but got no answer ; and at last I 
jumped down to find the poor little fellow overpowered 
from the effects of the carbonic acid gas, with which 
the pit was filled. The earth at the ladder end had 
entirely prevented the necessary ventilation, and the 
potatoes had "heated," and had become perfectly 
rotten. We managed better after this by putting 
straw instead of earth into the opening ; but the 
right plan would have been to sink a small hollow 
tube of wood — a slender piece of some young tree, 
with the middle scooped out, through the top, to 
serve as a ventilator. It was a great loss to us, as 
the potatoes were then at the unusual price of a 
dollar a bushel, and eighty dollars were to us, at that 
time, a small fortune. 

The laying in the winter's wood was a tedious 
affair : it was cut in the fall, and part of it dragged 
by the oxen to the house in the shape of long logs ; 
but we left the greater part of the drawing till the 
snow came. It was a nasty job to cut off each day 
what would serve the kitchen, and keep the fires 
brisk ; and I sometimes even yet feel a twinge of 
conscience at the way I used to dole out a fixed 
number of pieces to my sisters, keeping it as small 
as possible, and much smaller than it should have 



890 Chopping Firewood. 

been, I was willing enough to work at most things, 
and can't blame myself for being lazy ; but to get up 
from the warm fire on a cold morning to chop fire- 
wood, was freezing work ; though this should certainly 
not have kept me from cutting a few more sticks, 
after all, I am afraid we are too apt to be selfish in 
these trifles, even when we are the very reverse in 
things of more moment. If I had the chance, now I 
am older, I think I would atone for my stinginess, 
cost me what freezing it might. 



391 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Thoughts for the future— Changes — Too-hard study — Edu- 
cation in Canada — Christmas markets — Winter amuse- 
ments — Ice-boats — Very cold ice — Oil-springs — Changes 
on the farm — Growth of Canada — The American climate 
— Old England again. 

When we had been five years on the farm, and 
Henry, and I, and the girls, were now getting 
to be men and women, the question of what we 
should do to get started in the world, became more 
and more pressing. Robert wished to get married ; 
Henry and I, and the two girls, all alike, wanted to 
be off; and the farm was clearly unfit to support 
more than one household. It took a long time for 
us to come to any conclusion, but at last we decided 
that Eobert should have the land, that the girls should 
be sent for a time to a school down the country, and 
Henry and I should go to Toronto, he to study 
medicine, and I law. Of course, all this could not 
be managed at once, but it was greatly facilitated by 
remittances from my brothers in England, who un- 
dertook by far the larger proportion of the cost. I 
confess I felt more sorrow at leaving the old place 
than I had expected, though it was still for years to 
be my home whenever I got free for a time ; and it 



392 Too-hard Study. 

was long before I could get fairly into Blackstone, 
and Chitty, and Smith. Had I known how my life 
would ultimately turn, I don't think I should ever 
have troubled them, for here I am now, my law laid 
aside, snugly in England again, a partner in the 
mercantile establishment of my brothers, who had 
continued at home. I did not like the law in its 
every-day details of business, though all must recog- 
nise the majesty of the great principles on which the 
whole fabric rests; and I got tired utterly of the 
country, at last, perhaps from failing health, for I 
bent with too much zeal to my studies when I once 
began. The chance of leaving Canada for my native 
land was thus unspeakably pleasing ; and it has re- 
warded the gratitude with which I once more reached 
it, by giving me back a good part of the strength I 
had lost. When I look back on the years I spent 
over my books, and remember how I presumed on 
my youth, and tasked myself, night and day, to con- 
tinuous work, it seems as if my folly had only been 
matched by my guilt. To rmdermine our health is 
to trifle with all our advantages at once. Honest, 
earnest work, is all well enough, and nobody can 
ever be anything without it, but if there be too much 
of it, it defeats its own object, and leaves him who 
has overtaxed himself behind those who have made 
a more discreet use of their strength. I would 
gladly give half of what I learned by all my years 
of close study, for some of the health I lost in 
acquiring it. Indeed, I question if I gained more, 



Too-hard Study. 393 

after all, by fagging on with a wearied body and 
mind, than I would, if I had taken proper relaxation 
and amusement, and returned fresh and vigorous 
to my books. The Genoese archers lost the battle 
of Cressy by a shower falling on their bow-strings, 
while those on our side gained it by having had their 
weapons safely in cases till the clouds were past. So, 
no doubt, it should be in our management of those 
powers within, on which our success in student life 
depends — let them be safely shielded betimes, and 
they will be fresh for action when others are relaxed 
and useless. How much time is spent when the 
mind is wearied, without our being able to retain 
anything of what we read ! How often have I closed 
my book, at last, with the feeling, that, really, it might 
as well have been shut Ions: before. I read in the 
office, and out of it, whenever I had a chance ; had 
some book or other on the table at my meals ; kept 
rigidly from visiting friends, that I might economize 
every moment ; poked my fire, and lighted a fresh 
candle at midnight, and gained some knowledge, 
indeed, but at the cost of white, or rather yellow 
cheeks — a stoop of the shoulders, and a hollow 
chest — cold feet, I fear, for life, and a stomach so 
weak that I am seldom without a memento of my 
folly in the pain it gives me. An hour or two in the 
open air every day would have saved me all these 
abatements, and would have quickened my powers of 
work so as more than to make up for their being in- 
dulged in a little play. 



394 Education in Canada. 

Since my day, great facilities have been afforded 
in Canada for education. There are now grammar- 
schools, with very moderate fees, in every part of the 
country, and a lad or young man can very easily get 
a scholarship which takes him free through the Uni- 
versity at Toronto.* Every county has one or more 
to give away each year. There is thus every chance 
for those who wish to rise, and Canada will no doubt 
show some notable results from the facility she has 
liberally provided for the encouragement of native 
genius and talent. 

My being for a length of time in a town showed 
me new features of our colonial life which I should 
in vain have looked for in the country. In many 
respects I might easily have forgotten I was in Canada 
at all, for you might as well speak of getting a correct 
idea of England from living in a provincial town, as 
of Canada by living in the streets of Toronto. The 
dress of the people is much the same as in Britain. 
Hats and light overcoats are not entirely laid aside 
even in winter, though fur caps and gauntlets, after 
all, are much more common. The ladies sweej3 along 
with more show than in England, as if they dressed 
for out-of-door display especially; but they are, no 
doubt, tempted to this by the clearness and dryness 

* The University has been long established, but since I 
attended its classes, it has been put on a more liberal basis — 
the number of chairs enlarged, and facilities for obtaining its 
advantages greatly increased. 



Christmas Markets. 395 

of the air, which neither soils nor injures fine things, 
as the coal-dust and the dampness do in English 
towns. The most plainly-dressed ladies I used to see 
were the wife and daughters of the Governor-general. 

The markets at Christmas were usually a greater 
attraction to many people than they used to be in 
England. If the weather chanced to be cold, you 
would see huge files of frozen pigs standing on their 
four legs in front of the stalls, as if they had been 
killed when at a gallop ; countless sheep hung over- 
head, with here and there one of their heads carefully 
gilded, to add splendour to the exhibition. Some 
deer were almost always to be noticed at some of the 
stalls, and it was not unusual to see the carcase of a 
bear contributing its part to the general show. As 
to the oxen, they were too fat for my taste, though 
the butchers seemed to be proud of them in propor- 
tion to their obesity. The market was not confined 
to a special building, though there was one for the 
purpose. Long ranges of farmers' waggons, ranged 
at each side of it, showed similar treasures of frozen 
pork and mutton, the animals standing entire at the 
feet of their owners, who sat among them waiting for 
purchasers. Frozen geese, ducks, chickens, and tur- 
keys abounded, and that household was very poor in- 
deed which had not one or other to grace the festival. 

Winter was a great time for amusement to the 
townspeople, from the nearness of the broad hay 
which in summer forms their harbour, and, after the 



396 Winter Amusements. 

frost, their place of recreation. It was generally 
turned into a great sheet of ice across its whole 
breadth of two miles, some time about Christmas, 
and continued like rock till the middle of April. As 
long as there were no heavy falls of snow to bury it, 
or after they had been blown oiF by the wind, the 
skating was universal. Boys and men alike gave 
way to the passion for it. The ice was covered with 
one restless throng from morning to night. School- 
boys made for it as soon as they got free ; the clerks 
and shopmen were down the instant the shutters were 
up and the doors fastened ; even ladies crowded to it, 
either to skate with the assistance of some gentle- 
man, or to see the crowd, or to be pushed along in 
chairs mounted on runners. The games of different 
kinds played between large numbers were very ex- 
citing. Scotchmen with their " curling," others with 
balls, battering them hither and thither, in desperate 
efforts to carry them to a particular boundary. Then 
there were the ice-boats gliding along in every direc- 
tion, with their loads of well-dressed people reclining 
on them, and their huge sail swelling overhead. 
These contrivances were new to me, though I had 
been so long in Canada. They consist of a three- 
cornered frame of wood, large enough to give room 
for five or six people lying down or sitting on them, 
the upper side boarded over, and the lower shod on 
each angle with an iron runner. A mast and sail 
near the sharp point which goes foremost furnish the 



The Ice-trade of Toronto. 397 

means of propulsion. The two longest runners are 
fixed, but the short one at the back is worked by a 
helm, the steersman having absolute control of the 
machine by its aid, and keeping within reach the 
cleats of the sail, that he may loosen or tighten it as 
he sees necessary. Many of the lads about were very 
skilful in managing them, and would sail as close to 
the wind, and veer and tack, as if they were in an 
ordinary boat in the water, instead of an oddly-shaped 
sleigh on ice. A very little wind sufficed to drive 
them at a good speed if the ice was good, and there 
was a good deal of excitement in watching the cracks 
and airholes as you rushed over them. I have seen 
them sometimes going with great rapidity. They 
say, indeed, that occasionally they cross the harbour 
in less than four minutes — a rate of speed equal to 
nearly thirty miles an hour. 

The ice-trade of Toronto is a considerable branch 
of industry during the winter, and gangs of men are 
employed for weeks together sawing out great blocks 
about two feet square from the parts of the bay where 
it is clearest and best for use. These are lifted by 
poles furnished with iron hooks, into carts, and taken 
to houses specially prepared for keeping them through 
the hot weather of the following summer. An ordi- 
nary wooden frame building is lined inside with a 
wall all round, at from two to three feet from the 
outer one, and the space between is filled with waste 
tan bark rammed close, to keep out the heat when it 



398 Spring Ice. 

comes. In this wintry shelter the cubes of ice are 
built up in solid masses, and, when full, the whole is 
finally protected by double doors, with a large quan- 
tity of straw between them. In the hot months you 
may see light carts with cotton coverings stretched 
over them in every street, carrying round the con- 
tents — now broken into more saleable pieces — the 
words " Spring ice" on each side of the white roof 
inviting the housekeepers to supply themselves. In 
hotels, private dwellings, railway carriages, steamers, 
and indeed everywhere, drinking-water in summer is 
invariably cooled by lumps of this gelid luxury, and 
not a few who take some of the one finish by suck- 
ing and swallowing some of the other. I saw an 
advertisement lately in a New Orleans paper, begging 
the visitors at hotels not to eat the ice in the water- 
jugs this season, as, from the war having cut off the 
supply from the North, it was very scarce. At table, 
in most houses, the butter is regularly surmounted 
by a piece of ice, and it seems a regular practice with 
some persons at hotels and on steamers to show their 
breeding and selfishness by knocking aside this useful 
ornament, and taking the piece which it covered, as 
the coolest and hardest, leaving the others to put it 
up again if they like. 

Boiling water never gets hotter than two hundred 
and twelve degrees, because, at that heat it flies off in 
steam, but ice may be made a great deal colder than 
it is when it first freezes. English ice is pretty 



Canadian Ice. 399 

cold, but it never gets far below thirty-two degrees, 
which is the freezing-point. Canadian ice, on the 
other hand, is as much colder as the air of Canada in 
which it is formed, is than that of England. Thus 
there is much more cold in a piece of ice, of a given 
size, from the one country, than in a piece of a similar 
size from the other, and where cold is wished to be 
produced, as it is in all drinks in summer in hot 
climates, Canadian ice is, of course, much more 
valuable than any warmer kind would be. The 
Americans have long ago thought of this, and have 
created a great trade in their ice, which is about as 
cold as that of Canada, taking it in ships prepared 
very much as the ice-houses are, to India, and many 
other countries, where it is sold often at a great profit. 
You read of the ice crop as you would hear farmers 
speak of their crop of wheat or potatoes. They have 
not got so far as this that I know of in Canada, but 
if Boston ice can command a good price in Calcutta 
or Madras, that of the Lower St. Lawrence should be 
able to drive it out of the market, for it is very much 
colder. A few inches of it are like a concentrated 
portable winter. 

In the fine farms round Toronto a great many 
fields are without any stumps, sometimes from their 
having been cleared so long that the stumps have 
rotted out, and sometimes by their having been 
pulled out bodily as you would an old tooth, by a 
stump machine. It is a simple enough contrivance. 



400 Oil Springs. 

A great screw is raised over the stump on a strong 
frame of wood which is made to enclose it ; some 
iron grapnels are fastened into it on different sides, 
and a long pole put sticking out at one side for a horse, 
and then — after some twists — away it goes, with far 
more ease than would be thought possible. The 
outlying roots have, of course, to be cut away first, 
and a good deal of digging done, to let the screw, 
and the horse or horses, have every chance, but it is 
a much more expeditious plan than any other known 
in Canada, and must be a great comfort to the farmer 
by letting him. plough and harrow without going 
round a wilderness of stumps in each field. 

A singular discovery has been made of late years 
about ten miles behind Eobert's farm in Bidport, of 
wells yielding a constant supply of petroleum, or 
rock oil, instead of water. The quantity obtained 
is enormous, and as the oil is of a very fine quality 
and fit for most ordinary purposes, it is of great 
value. Strangely enough, not only in Canada but 
also in the States, the same unlooked-for source has 
been found, at about the same time, supplying the 
same kind of oil. The "wells" of Pennsylvania are 
amazingly productive. I have been assured that 
there is a small river in one of the townships of 
that State, called Oil Creek, which is constantly 
covered with a thick coat of oil, from the quantity 
that oozes from each side of the banks. The whole 
soil around is saturated with it, and this, with the 



Oil Springs. 401 

necessity of fording the water, has destroyed a great 
many valuable horses, which are found to get in- 
flamed and useless in the legs by the irritation the 
oil causes. Wells are sunk in every part of the 
neighbourhood, each of which spouts up oil as an 
artesian well does water, and that to such an amazing 
extent that, from some of them, hundreds of barrels, 
it is affirmed, have been filled in a day. Indeed, there 
is one well, which is known by the name of " The 
Brawley," which, if we can believe the accounts 
given, in sixty days spouted out thirty-three thousand 
barrels of oil, and some others are alleged to have 
yielded more than two thousand barrels in twenty- 
four hours. Unfortunately, preparations had not, in 
most cases, been made for catching this extraordinary 
quantity, so that a great proportion of it ran off and 
was lost. The depth of the wells varies. Some are 
close to the surface, but those which yield most are 
from five to eight hundred feet deep, and, there, seem 
to reach a vast lake of oil which is to all appearance 
inexhaustible. They manage to save the whole pro- 
duce now by lining the wells, which are mere holes 
about six inches in diameter, for some depth with 
copper sheathing, and putting a small pipe with 
stop-cocks in at the top, which enables them to con- 
trol the flow as easily as they do that of water. If 
we think of the vast quantities of coal stored up in 
different parts, it will diminish our astonishment at 

D D 



402 Oil Springs. 

the discovery of these huge reservoirs of oil, for both 
seem to have the same source, from the vast beds of 
vegetation of the early eras of the globe ; if, indeed, 
the oil do not often rise from decomposition of coal 
itself, for it occurs chiefly in the coal measures. 
We shall no doubt have full scientific accounts of 
them, after a time, and as they become familiar we 
will lose the feeling of wonder which they raised 
at first. Except to the few who are thoughtful, 
nothing that is not new and strange seems worthy of 
notice ; but, if we consider aright, what is wonderful 
in itself is no less so because we have become accus- 
tomed to it. It is one great difference between a 
rude and a cultivated mind, that the one has only 
a gaping wonder at passing events or discoveries, 
while the other seeks to find novelty in what is 
already familiar. The one looks only at a result 
before him, the other tries to find out causes. The 
one only looks at things as a whole, the other dwells 
on details and examines the minutest parts. The one 
finds food for his curiosity in his first impressions, 
and when these fade, turns aside without any further 
interest; the other discovers wonders in things the 
most common, insignificant, or apparently worthless. 
Science got the beautiful metal — aluminium — out of 
the clay which ignorance trod under foot ; through 
Sir Humphrey Davy it got iodine out of the scrapings 
of soap-kettles which the soap-boilers had always 



Changes on the Farm. 403 

thrown out, and it extracts the beautiful dyes we call 
Magenta and Solferino, from coal-tar which used to 
be a worthless nuisance near every gas-house. 

My brother Eobert's farm, when I last saw it, was 
very different from my first recollections of it. He 
has had a nice little brick house built, and frame 
barns have taken the place of the old log ones that 
served us long ago. After our leaving he commenced 
a new orchard of the best trees he could get — a 
nursery established sixty miles off down the river, 
supplying young trees of the best kinds cheaply. 
They have flourished, and must by this time be 
getting quite broad and venerable. He has some good 
horses, a nice gig for summer, with a leather cover to 
keep off the sun or the storm, and a sleigh for winter, 
with a very handsome set of furs. Most of the land 
is cleared, and he is able to keep a man all the time, 
so that he has not the hard work he once had. His 
fences are new and good, and the whole place looked 
very pleasant in summer. All this progress, how- 
ever, has not been made from the profits of the farm. 
A little money left by a relative to each of us gave 
him some capital, and with it he opened a small store 
on his lot in a little house built for the purpose. 
There was no pretence of keeping shop, but when 
a customer came he called at the house, and any- 
one who happened to be at hand went with him 
and unlocked the door, opened the shutter, and 



404 Growth of Canada. 

supplied him, locking all safely again when he was 
gone. In this primitive way he has made enough 
to keep him very comfortably with his family, the 
land providing most of what they eat. They have a 
school within a mile of them, but it is rather a 
humble one, and there is a clergyman for the church 
at the wharf two miles down. Henry established 
himself in a little village when he first got his 
degree, but was thought so much of by his professors 
that he has been asked to take the chair of surgery, 
which he now holds. My two sisters, Margaret and 
Eliza, both married, but only the former is now 
living, the other having been dead for some years. 
Margaret is married to a worthy Presbyterian 
minister, and, if not rich, is, at least, comfortable, in 
the plain way familiar in Canada. 

When we first went to Canada no more was meant 
by that name than the strip of country along the 
St. Lawrence, in the Lower Province, and, in the 
Upper, the peninsula which is bounded by the great 
lakes — Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Since then, how- 
ever, the discovery of gold in California and Fraser's 
Eiver has given a wider range to men's thoughts, 
and awakened an ambition in the settled districts to 
claim as their domain the vast regions of British 
America, stretching away west to the shores of the 
Pacific, and north to the Arctic Ocean. I used to 
think all this vast tract only fit for the wild animals 
to which it was for the most part left, but there is 



The American Climate. 405 

nothing like a little knowledge for changing mere 
prejudice. There is of course a part of it which is 
irredeemably desolate, but there are immense reaches 
which will, certainly, some day, be more highly 
valued than they are now. The nearly untouched 
line on the north of Lake Huron has been found 
to be rich in mines of copper. The Eed Eiver 
district produces magnificent wheat. The Eiver 
Saskatchewan, flowing in two great branches from the 
west and north-west to Lake Winnepeg, drains a 
country more than six times as large as the whole 
of England and Wales, and everywhere showing the 
most glorious woods and prairies, which are proofs 
of its wealth as an agricultural region. The Mac- 
kenzie Eiver drains another part of the territory 
eight times as large as England and Wales to- 
gether, and the lower parts of it, at least, have a 
climate which promises comfort and plenty. It is 
no less than two thousand five hundred miles in 
length, and is navigable by steamboats for twelve 
hundred miles from its mouth. It is a singular fact 
that the farther west you go on the North American 
continent, the milder the climate. Vancouver's 
Island, which is more than two hundred miles far- 
ther north than Toronto, has a climate like that of 
England ; instead of the extremes of Canada, as you 
go up the map, the difference between the west and 
east sides of the continent becomes as great as if we 
were to find in Newcastle the same temperature in 



406 The American Climate. 

winter as French settlers enjoy in Algiers. The 
musk oxen go more than four hundred miles farther 
north in summer, on the western, than they do on 
the eastern side, and the elk and moose-deer wander 
nearly six hundred miles farther north in the grass 
season, on the one than on the other. 

It is indeed more wonderful that the east side of 
America should be so cold than that the west should 
be so much milder. Toronto is on a line with the Py- 
renees and Florence, and yet has the climate of Russia 
instead of that of Southern France or Italy; and 
Quebec, with its frightful winters and roasting sum- 
mers, would stand nearly in the middle of France, 
if it were carried over in a straight line to Europe. 
Yet we know what a wonderful difference there is in 
England, which is, thus, far to the north of it. It 
is to the different distribution of land and sea in the 
two hemispheres, the mildness in the one case, and 
the coldness in the other, must be attributed. The 
sea which stretches round the British Islands, 
warmed by the influence of the Gulf Stream, is the 
great source of their comparative warmth, tempering, 
by its nearly uniform heat, alike the fierce blasts of 
the north and the scorching airs of the south. 
In Sir Charles LyelTs " Principles of Geology," you 
will find maps of the land and sea on the earth, so 
arranged that, in one, all the land would be compa- 
ratively temperate, while, in the other, it would all 
be comparatively cold. In America it is likely that 



Old England again. 407 

the great mountains that run north and south in 
three vast chains, beginning, in the west, with the 
Cascade Mountains, followed, at wide distances, by the 
Eockv Mountains, rising in their vast height and 
length, as a second barrier, on the east of them, and 
by the vast nameless chain which stretches, on the 
east side of the continent, from the north shore of 
Lake Superior to the south of King William's Land, 
on the Arctic Ocean — modify the climate of the great 
North-west to some extent, but it is very hard to 
speak with any confidence on a point so little known. 
I have already said that I am glad I am back 
again in dear Old England, and I repeat it now that 
I am near the end of my story. I have not said 
anything about my stay in Nova Scotia, because 
it did not come within my plan to do so, but I 
include it in my thoughts when I say, that, after all 
I have seen these long years, I believe "there's no 
place like home." If a boy really wish to get on 
and work as he ought, he will find an opening in 
life in his own glorious country, without leaving it 
for another. Were the same amount of labour ex- 
pended by anyone here, as I have seen men bestow 
on their wild farms in the bush, they would get as 
much for it in solid comfort and enjoyment, and 
would have around them through life the thousand 
delights of their native land. Some people can leave 
the scene of their boyhood and the friends of their 
youth, and even of their manhood, without seeming 



408 Feeling towards England. 

to feel it, but I do not envy them their indifference. 
I take no shame in confessing that I felt towards 
England, while away from it, what dear Oliver 
Goldsmith says so touchingly of his brother: — 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee : 
Still to my country turns, with ceaseless pain, 
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain." 



THE END. 



9 



NOV- 8 1902 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 461 182 8 ♦! 






